The defendant is an Argentinean national and travelled from Cordoba in Argentina via Sao Paulo and Doha and arrived in Hong Kong on 4 February, in the afternoon. He was intercepted going through the ‘green channel’ at the Customs Arrival Hall, pushing a trolley and on it was a black handbag and a suitcase.
Subsequently, the suitcase was searched and what the Customs officers found inside the suitcase were mattresses or, as Mr Ross puts it, they were a sort of plastic pads, and two jackets and a vest. Inside these were subsequently discovered pads which contained the cocaine which is the subject matter of the charge.
The defendant claimed, under caution, that he did not know what was concealed inside the suitcase. The defendant also said, in a video-recorded interview, that he had lost his job as a chemical technician and became a security guard and his friend had offered to buy him a ticket to Hong Kong for sightseeing and buying cheap computers and cell phones. He would repay his friend for the air ticket in small amounts subsequently. He said that his friend then asked him to bring some gifts to someone in Hong Kong and he did not know what they were.
The Government Chemist subsequently identified the cocaine kept inside the suitcase and the street value of the cocaine was in the region of HK$3,881,120. The defendant now admits to trafficking in that amount.
In mitigation, Mr Ross says that he is separated from his wife. The defendant has three children. He is aged 50. In a letter written to the court, the defendant expressed his full remorse and his regret at having committed this crime.
It is, as I have said, time and time again, very difficult for Hong Kong authorities to eradicate this very evil trade of drug trafficking in Hong Kong. We are facing a constant battle, not only internationally with arrivals from overseas countries but also across the border between China and Hong Kong, and so the court in Hong Kong takes a very serious view of traffickers and their background pales into comparison against the evil that this kind of trade causes to our society in Hong Kong.
Guidelines have been laid down by the Court of Appeal most recently in the case of Abdallah [2009] Volume 2 HKC 197, where it is recommended that for trafficking in between 1,000 to 4,000 grammes of cocaine, a sentence of between 23 to 26 years is recommenced.
Taking into account the facts in this case, I consider that an appropriate starting point would be 24½ years’ imprisonment. The aggravating feature in this case is that of international importation into Hong Kong for which I will add 2 years to the 24½ years, which makes it 26½ years.
Giving the defendant the full benefit of his plea, which means a deduction of one-third off, the defendant is sentenced to 17 years 8 months’ imprisonment.