CRIMINAL CASE NO. 194 OF 2009
COURT: Norman Martin Farias Fernandez, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in 2,440 grammes of a powder containing 1,634 grammes of cocaine.
This very large quantity of cocaine was found concealed in a secret compartment of the suitcase you brought with you into Hong Kong when you arrived by air on 13 January this year.
The Narcotics Bureau of the Hong Kong Police has estimated the retail value of those drugs in Hong Kong as about HK$1.9 million.
Your air journey to Hong Kong had taken you from Buenos Aires to Mendoza in Argentina, before flying to Santiago and then on to Paris, before taking an Air France flight to Hong Kong.
Although you were a resident of a country in South America, you cannot have failed to have been aware of the very serious consequences that would follow if you were caught trafficking in this quantity of drugs.
You committed this offence on 13 January this year, which was before the Hong Kong Court of Appeal set out new guidelines in the case of Abdallah Anwar Abbas. However, it is apparent from the remarks of the court in that case that they regarded an overall starting point of 25 years’ imprisonment as appropriate for someone who had brought a mixture containing 1,218.86 grammes of heroin into Hong Kong, even before they issued the new guidelines.
In reaching the conclusion they did, the court referred to another case, the case of R v Ho Chi Ming, in which the court had found nothing wrong in principle with a starting point of 25 years’ imprisonment for someone who had brought 1,213 grammes of narcotics into Hong Kong.
In your case, the narcotic content of the drugs you were bringing into Hong Kong was greater than in either of those two cases.
Bearing in mind the comments of the Court of Appeal and the fact that there are in reality no exceptional circumstances in this case, I consider it appropriate to adopt an initial starting point of 23 years’ imprisonment, which I enhance by 2 years to reflect the fact that you were importing drugs into Hong Kong from overseas.
I am therefore adopting a starting point of 25 years’ imprisonment, which is the same starting point that was referred to in the previous two cases.
I bear in mind the circumstances to which I have been referred by Mr Loftus, namely that you committed this offence in order to pay off a debt owed by your brother to drug suppliers. I also bear in mind the hardship and distress this matter has caused your family, which is apparent from the letters. These, however, are matters which can only have limited significance in an offence of this gravity.
The really significant mitigation in this case is the fact that you have pleaded guilty and thereby shown your remorse. As you will have been told, that entitles you to a discount of one-third.
You are accordingly sentenced to 16 years 8 months’ imprisonment.