COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 0.58 kilogrammes of a mixture containing 0.22 kilogrammes of heroin hydrochloride.
It is unfortunately a common feature in this court to encounter defendants coming from the African continent carrying drugs into Hong Kong.
In this case the defendant arrived in Hong Kong on 11 December 2012 from Johannesburg, South Africa via Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon being stopped and subsequently examined at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, foreign objects were found to be present inside his body.
Whilst he was in custody, the defendant, under caution, admitted that his visit to Hong Kong was in order to transit to mainland China. He said that upon arrival in Hong Kong he was told by people in Malaysia that someone will meet him at City Garden Hotel and then take him to mainland China the following morning.
He admitted that he had swallowed 59 pellets and he was promised a reward of US$3,000 upon completion of the transaction in China.
From December 11 to December 13 the defendant excreted a total of 59 pellets which were found to contain the drugs the subject matter of this charge. The estimated street value of these drugs is in the region of HK$523,160.
The defendant is aged 31 and has a clear record here and I am told by Mr Sadhwani he also has a clear record in South Africa. The mitigation advanced on his behalf by Mr Sadhwani is that he was working as a blue collar worker in South Africa and he got married and has two children.
He was working on a construction site earning in the region of HK$750 per month but lost his job in March 2012. He prayed to God for help and subsequently a Nigerian man appeared and introduced him to someone else who told him about a job in Malaysia and that is how he came to be delivering drugs from Malaysia to China via Hong Kong
The defendant wrote a letter to the court which Mr Sadhwani read out, and he expresses remorse and said he does not wish to harm human life. What the defendant does not seem to realise is that in participating in this evil trade he is harming human life because the dispersal of these drugs will cause very tragic consequences to young people and their families.
The only mitigating circumstance in this case is that the defendant has pleaded guilty at an early stage and, as Mr Sadhwani correctly pointed out, the Court of Appeal has laid guidelines in Lau Tak Ming for trafficking in heroin hydrochloride. For trafficking in between 200 to 400 grammes the sentence recommended is 12 to 15 years after trial.
In this case, the defendant was trafficking in 220 grammes which would merit a starting point sentence of 12 to 12½ years. I will take 12 years as a starting point.
The aggravating feature in this case is the fact that these drugs were imported into Hong Kong and bound for export into mainland China. The international element in this case is an aggravating factor and I will add 2 years for that. I am aware that the judge has a discretion of adding between 1 to 2 years for the international element.
In this case, as the drugs were bound for China and Hong Kong was used as a transit centre, it makes the aggravating factor more serious.
With the sentence increased to 14 years I will give the defendant the full one-third discount for his plea, thus reducing the sentence to 9 years and 4 months.
So the defendant will go to prison for 9 years and 4 months.