CRIMINAL CASE NOS. 354 AND 385 OF 2009
COURT: The jury have convicted you on overwhelming evidence of trafficking in cocaine and of manufacturing it and I have to sentence you for it.
You will readily appreciate, because it will have been explained to you, that the sentencing for drug trafficking is based on guidelines. You fall in the guideline that runs out at an amount of 600 grammes. The amount in question you had was in excess of that, but not greatly in excess of it, and I shall take a starting point on Count 1 of 20 years' imprisonment.
On Count 2, that is a separate count, where there is only 1.68 grammes of cocaine involved, I shall pass a sentence on that count of 2 years' imprisonment but I shall order that to run concurrently to the sentence on Count 1.
As regards the manufacturing, what you have been doing in the flat in question was converting cocaine hydrochloride to cocaine base. You were what is colloquially called 'cracking the drug' and that makes it more valuable. It allows people to smoke it, or burn it and inhale the fumes. It is an aggravation of the trafficking that you have both been convicted of in the 1st count.
No specific amount can be proved to have been cracked, although there was an amount, a small proportion of the drugs in Count 1 and the drugs in Count 2, that had been converted into crack cocaine.
Accordingly, for Count 3, in each case I shall take a starting point of 10 years' imprisonment and I shall impose that and overlap it with the sentence on the 1st count and the 2nd count, so that you will serve, in all, 22 years' imprisonment. I shall achieve that on the 3rd count by ordering that it commence after the expiry of the first 12 years of the sentence on Count 1.
I can see no reason to distinguish between the two of you. There was slightly more evidence against the 1st defendant but that excess of evidence did not indicate to me any greater criminal involvement. I judge it just in the circumstances to treat you both in the same way.
It is a great shame that you have ruined your lives in this way. You both appear, other than this, to be decent young men, but there is no doubt about it, you could not have carried on an operation like this and of this sophistication without being aware of the risks that you ran. You knew what you were doing; you knew what you faced if you were caught, and you have been caught and you will have to face the consequence.
The sentence in each case is one of 22 years' imprisonment.