COURT: Both defendants have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. They are committed to this court for sentence.
In the evening on 29 August 2022, the two defendants were intercepted by police officers outside a unit of one industrial building in Kwun Tong. Using a key found on the 1st defendant, police officers opened the unit and inside the unit, police officers found 21.52 grammes of cocaine, 89.32 grammes of ketamine and 0.01 grammes of a powder containing ketamine, and a number of drug paraphernalia.
The street value of those drugs was estimated to be between 94,200 and HK$120,000.
Under caution both defendants admitted that upon further instruction they were there to package and deliver the drugs in question.
D1 is 17 now, single, educated up to Form 2 level. Prior to his arrest he was a full-time student reading electrical engineering diploma. D2 is now 19, single, educated up to Form 3 level. He has one criminal record, but unrelated to the present offence. Prior to his arrest, he was a part-time lorry attendant earning $600 a day.
Both defendants admitted that they agreed to package and deliver the dangerous drugs in question for financial gain. Mitigation letters from parents, family members and social workers have been produced. They plead for leniency from the court. They wish the court to pass a sentence as lenient as possible. I understand their wishes; however, I am bound by the sentencing guidelines set down by the Court of Appeal.
Counsel from both sides have kindly provided to the court that in their view the notional starting point for trafficking in those dangerous drugs under various tests would be one between 85 and 87 months. Technically speaking, both defendants were acting more than acting as a courier. Essentially, they were running a small-scale distribution operation. However, given their young age on this occasion I am not going to impose any additional sentence.
Also, I am going to give both of you the benefit of the doubt in adopting the lowest starting point – lowest notional starting point. That is 85 months as the starting point in this case. The two defendants will be given the full one-third discount for their earliest plea.
So for the sole offence that the 1st defendant and the 2nd defendant stand convicted, they are each sentenced to 56 months’ imprisonment.
Insofar as the 2nd defendant’s probation order is concerned, the probation order will be discharged.