CRIMINAL CASE NO. 58 OF 2010
COURT: You have been found guilty by the jury of trafficking in 342.29 grammes of cocaine narcotic.
What is clear is that you were part of a relatively sophisticated syndicate whose aim was to bring this cocaine into Hong Kong.
The drugs had been very professionally concealed and sealed inside an innocuous article which had been flown into Hong Kong from Argentina by post.
Elaborate efforts were made to prepare documents and a neutral address at a guest house for these drugs to be safely received. You were to play an essential part in the collection of those drugs.
An alert post office team managed to alert the Customs & Excise in time to prevent this cocaine from actually reaching the streets of Hong Kong.
What is disturbing in this case is the international aspect to this trafficking operation. The drugs were sent from South America and you yourself are from Nigeria.
The device by which you were to receive this parcel, ostensibly on behalf of someone else, was a photocopy of somebody else’s Nigerian passport which had obviously been altered for the purpose.
This is not just an ordinary case of someone in Hong Kong found in possession at their home of a large quantity of cocaine in which they were intending to traffic.
You had arrived in Hong Kong on the 27 August 2007 and had decided to overstay in the Territory for more than two years before you were arrested for this offence. How you have survived during that time without a job I have no idea and I will not speculate.
People are welcomed to Hong Kong to enjoy the many things that we have to offer. It is an open society relatively easy to get in to and hospitality is extended to many different people in the world for a variety of legitimate reasons.
On 30 October 2009 when you committed this offence you were not lawfully allowed to be here. In my view the message should go out loud and clear that people do not come to Hong Kong and remain here unlawfully to commit serious criminal offences such as trafficking in cocaine which effectively poisons the community which has been so hospitable to them. That message must go out loud and clear to other people who may be tempted to do as you have done.
There is no mitigation in this case. You have a clear record in Hong Kong, apart from the breach of a condition of stay for which you have been dealt with, but as has been said on countless occasions a clear record counts for little or nothing in case of this seriousness.
The appropriate tariff band for trafficking in 342.29 grammes of cocaine under the relevant guidelines is 12 to 15 years’ imprisonment after trial for amounts between 200 and 400 grammes. Applying simple mathematics your sentence would be in the region of 14 years.
I am conscious of the fact that you have already had a sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment passed upon you for breach of a condition of stay on 17 December 2009 and it would be open to me to make the sentence I pass either consecutive or concurrent to that sentence.
For the reasons which I have explained I take a very serious view of your involvement in this particular offence and the circumstances surrounding it.
I will pass a sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment but in the circumstances I order it to run consecutively to the 6 months’ imprisonment which has already been passed upon you in December of 2009.
That is the sentence of the court.