In a later video recorded interview he admitted he had collected the bags of ketamine from a male on the Mainland. He had been instructed to deliver the ketamine to somebody in Tai Kok Tsui for a reward of $1,000 after the delivery. He knew that the bags contained ketamine and he took the cross-border coach from Huanggang to Hong Kong and was arrested shortly after his arrival.
Analysis by the Government Chemist confirmed that the drugs were a total of 442.72 grammes of a powder containing 208.91 grammes of ketamine. The defendant was charged with trafficking in that amount and it is to that charge that he has pleaded guiltytoday.
The estimated retail value of the ketamine in August 2009 was $51,355.
The accused has one previous conviction in 1996 for importing or exporting un-manifested cargo and was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment. He has no previous drug offences and I note that his conviction is an old offence and not really relevant in terms of his present sentencing.
The defendant is aged 58. He has been working as a delivery worker earning $5,000 a month. He was formerly married, but is now divorced and his 10 year old son is being cared for by his ex-wife. He has remarried and lives with his wife in Shenzhen.
He, himself, has hypertension and diabetes and is on medication for those conditions. I am advised by counsel that he was only a courier and that he took the job from financial necessity because he was unable to support his wife and himself on what he was earning.
The main mitigation in this case is his plea of guilty which he has entered today and that entitles him to the full one-third discount. On the guidelines for ketamine that presently exist, this amount of narcotic comes into the category of 50 to 300 grammes which merits 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment.
I take a starting point of 8 years. I enhance that by 6 months to take into account the importation factor and discounting the term by one third, I sentence the defendant to 5 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.