COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs in the Magistrates Court. He is committed to this court for sentence.
The summary of facts reveals the following. In the evening on 26 April 2014, the defendant was intercepted by Customs officers at the Customs Arrival Hall of the Hong Kong International Airport. The defendant travelled from Doha to Hong Kong earlier that day. Suspecting that foreign objects might have been concealed inside his body, the defendant was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for further examination.
82 pellets containing 630 grammes of heroin and 110 grammes of 6-monacetylmorphine hydrochloride were subsequently discharged from the defendant’s body. The street value of the drugs was estimated to be about HK$640,000.
The defendant is 31, married with two children. He also has a mother to look after. He is the sole earner of the family. In the course of the mitigation, letters from the defendant and Father Mellor were also submitted. They asked for leniency and mercy. I fully understand that, but in a case as serious as the present one, personal circumstances pale into insignificance.
The defendant is highly educated and his motive for committing the present offence is purely financial. The amount that the defendant stood to benefit had the delivery become successful was substantial. So, in short, he’s not as ignorant as he claims.
Given the fact that 6-monacetylmorphine and heroin belong to the same class of chemical, it will be treated the same as heroin for the purpose of sentencing.
Guidelines on sentencing are clear. Starting point for trafficking in 0.74 kilogrammes of heroin will be in the region of 20 to 21 years’ imprisonment. In this case, since the drugs in question were smuggled across countries and continents, this increases the seriousness of the offence. In view of that, a starting point of 21 years is therefore adopted.
In my view, the only mitigating factor in this case is the defendant’s plea. Given the defendant’s plea he is therefore sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment.