CRIMINAL CASE NO. 217 OF 2011
COURT: The offence is one of trafficking across international borders in heroin hydrochloride together with a dangerous drug which has close similarity with heroin, in that it is, according to the government chemist’s report, of similar potency, namely monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride. The way that the laboratory report describes this is in these terms:
“heroin (also called diacetylmorphine) and monoacetylmorphine are both acetylation products of morphine, and heroin produced by the chemical process of acetylation may contain monoacetylmorphine due to incomplete acetylation. Heroin may also be partially hydrolysed by moisture to form monoacetylmorphine. Like heroin hydrochloride, monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride is a narcotic analgesic with similar potency and is controlled under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (First Schedule, Part 1) as a salt of an ester of morphine. Heroin hydrochloride and monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride together can also be named as salts of esters of morphine (S.E.M.).”
The combined weight of the narcotic content brought by the defendant from Tanzania, through Dubai, was 680 grammes in a mixture weighing 860 grammes. The street value was estimated to be $625,220.
The defendant, who was travelling on a Tanzanian Passport, brought these drugs into Hong Kong on 11 January 2011, having swallowed 100 packets. She was expecting to be paid a monetary reward once she arrived in Guangzhou which is said to have been a relatively very small sum.
The defendant has accepted full responsibility from the outset and she will receive the benefit for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity. The guilty plea she entered at Eastern Magistracy, on 17 June 2011, has been confirmed before me in these proceedings.
As the defendant will be well aware, having had the benefit of legal advice, the tariff for this quantity of heroin is 20 years’ imprisonment for amounts in the region of 600 grammes or more. Furthermore, for serious international trafficking, the courts will usually enhance that sentence. In all the circumstances, I will take as a starting point 20 years’ imprisonment enhanced by 1 year to 21 years for the international element. This must be reduced by a third to reflect the defendant’s plea of guilty.
Would you stand, please? Your sentence is 14 years’ imprisonment.