COURT: Defendant, on 13 June 2022, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs before a magistrate and have been committed here to the Court of First Instance for sentence. You pleaded guilty to trafficking in 347.51 grammes of a solid containing 260.30 grammes of cocaine and 1,137 grammes of a mixture containing 940 grammes of heroin hydrochloride on 9 January 2021 at Unit C, Room A, 1st Floor, Chap On Building, No 2 Anhui Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon.
In respect of the Summary of Facts of this case, on 9 January 2021, police officers were on duty near Chap On Mansion. At around 6.35 am on the same date, a lorry stopped outside the building. You walked out from the building and approached the lorry. A person sitting in the front passenger seat of the lorry alighted and unloaded five boxes onto the ground outside the building. You were seen to carry one of the boxes into the building. However, when you opened the gate of the building, you were intercepted by the police.
The box you carried did not contain anything. The four boxes placed outside the building were, however, found to contain crabs and 12 bottles containing 6.08 litres of water which did not contain any drugs.
The police officers then escorted you to Room A on the 1st floor of the building. This Room A was divided into three different units. You indicated to the police that your residence was in Unit C. At that time, the officers were armed with a search warrant and opened the door of Unit C from a key seized from you.
Inside the unit, found on the table were the drugs as stated in the charge. Also found were an electric scale, two lighters, three pairs of scissors, a cutter and a box containing many transparent resealable plastic bags, another bag containing many resealable plastic bags and an electronic scale and a paper box containing a sealer and other silver plastic bags.
Upon arrest and caution, you told the officer the cocaine and white powder were intended for sale by you because you did not have enough money to spend and so you wanted to sell the drugs to earn money.
It was revealed that you were the tenant of Unit C and the tenancy agreement was signed on 21 October 2020 for a period from 10 November 2020 to 9 November 2022.
In a video-recorded interview, you admitted that you had become acquainted with a male at a pub and that male asked if you wanted to earn quick money.
Later, on review of your mobile phone, it was revealed that this male’s name was Ele. There were some messages and photographs between yourself and Ele and you confirmed that the photographs depicted photos of drugs and drug-packing materials.
The value of the cocaine in powder form in this case was $460,000. If it were to be crack cocaine, it would be $700,000 and the heroin hydrochloride value was $1,459,908.
Defendant, you are now 26 years of age. You have six previous convictions of which three are related to dangerous drugs in that they are for possession of dangerous drugs.
Mr Bruce Tse, your counsel, has submitted written mitigation on your behalf and I have also received a letter penned by yourself, expressing your genuine remorse. You are single, educated up to Form 3 and was unemployed at the time of arrest. I am informed that due to COVID and the economic downturn, you were between jobs on the date of offence in question, but prior to that you had been a logistics worker earning approximately $15,000 a month, and you had also had experience as a chef in a Japanese restaurant. Your father is 76 years old, retired, and your eldest sister is 27 years of age.
In your letter penned to this court, you have reflected on your mistakes and realise now that you should stay away from your friends and lead a law-abiding life and it is your intention to find a stable kitchen job after you are released, Mr Tse tells me that job being one of a chef.
Defendant, Mr Tse is correct in the guideline case for the drugs involved in this case, which is cocaine and heroin hydrochloride given the amount and quantity is that of Abdallah. The total amount of drugs that you were trafficking in was 1,200.30 grammes, that is the total of the cocaine and heroin hydrochloride.
The bracket to which this amount of drug falls in Abdallah is that between 1,200 grammes to 4,000 grammes, which lays down an appropriate starting point after trial of between 23 and 26 years after trial.
Defendant, I accept that you were storing these drugs for sale in this room. Although you did tell the police officers this was your residence, looking at the photographs provided by the prosecution, this was not a residence but a vacant room with only one table containing the items in this case which are drug-related items. And you frankly admitted upon arrest by police that you had these drugs for sale.
Defendant, there are no aggravating factors in this case. You have no previous similar convictions for trafficking. The appropriate starting point had you been convicted after trial, I would have taken a term of 23 years’ imprisonment.
You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and for that reason you shall be given a full one-third discount. That is the only and strongest mitigating factor in this case. And therefore, your term of imprisonment shall be reduced to one of 15 years and 4 months’ imprisonment to which you shall serve.