CRIMINAL CASE NO. 104 OF 2012
COURT: The defendant pleads guilty to trafficking 280 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. She admitted the following facts.
At about 1.30 pm on 14 November 2011 the defendant entered Hong Kong from the Mainland through Lo Wu Control Point. She was intercepted by a Customs officer for a body search. The officer found a block tucked into the waistband of her tights. The block was wrapped in paper, plastic and adhesive tape. It contained 280 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
She admitted that she was about to deliver the drug to Mongkok for a man known to her as Cousin. She was promised a reward of $3,000.
The defendant agreed to take part in a controlled delivery operation. Later in the afternoon Customs officers took her to Playing Field Road, near Fa Yuen Street, for a controlled delivery. No one turned up to collect the drug.
According to Customs & Excise statistics the market price for this quantity of drug was about $280,000.
The defendant is 26 years old, single, she received education up to lower secondary level. There was very little information about her immediate family except that she came from a humble background.
She has two previous convictions. She was unemployed at the time of the offence. She was an addict taking “Ice” occasionally.
In her letter to this court the defendant asks for leniency. She is remorseful and regrets that she had been misled by her boyfriend into abusing drugs again in the year 2011. She plans to take up courses in prison. She asks for leniency. Her aunt wrote a letter pleading for leniency.
The sentencing tariff of HKSAR v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLRD, page 370, is applicable. For 280 grammes of heroin hydrochloride the starting point should be 13 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.
I bear in mind that the heroin was taken across the border from the Mainland to Hong Kong. The starting point should be enhanced to reflect this aggravating factor. I thus raise the starting point by 6 months.
Having considered the amount of heroin hydrochloride, the background of the defendant and the mitigation by counsel, I take the final starting point of 13 years and 8 months’ imprisonment. I deduct 4 years and 7 months for her plea. I further deduct 1 year for her assistance in the controlled delivery operation.
I sentence the defendant to 8 years and 1 month’s imprisonment.