The drugs which were the subject of Count 2 were discovered in two suitcases which were lying open in a flat you had rented and which you were seen to be entering and leaving on the morning of 8 October 2016. The state of the flat and the items found within it suggest that it was used for a commercial trafficking operation in which you would simply store, weigh and package dangerous drugs. The DNA recovered identified only you as the user of the flat, and there was nothing else to suggest it was frequented by anyone else despite you suggesting in your video-recorded interview that several other people lived there from time to time.
Your role was not one of a courier. You were a storekeeper and dealer. I have no evidence to indicate whether you passed the smaller packets of drugs to a middleman or whether you sold them on to an end user. The lack of any significant quantity of cash tends to suggest that you were not making a profit personally and that you must have been working for others. Nevertheless, the amount of the drugs in question and the fact that some of those drugs were in a suitcase you had taken to the flat earlier that morning suggest you have more of a role than that of a courier.
The street value of the dangerous drugs seized in this case was a total value of $9,713,124.
You are now 43 years of age with a history of previous offending but nothing of a similar nature. I understand you have a partner and three children of the family between 12 and 16 years of age. I also understand that your partner was found guilty of trafficking in dangerous drugs in 2013 and that she received a term of imprisonment of 14 years. She is due to be released early next year. No doubt that was difficult for you and for the children at a very young age, but that makes it all the more sad that you felt it appropriate to traffic in dangerous drugs yourself and to take the risk of a sentence of imprisonment, knowing the effect it would have upon your children. You have been remanded since 2016. Your children have had neither of you to look after them and will not be able to live with you again for very many years to come.
In respect of Count 2 which is the more serious offending, the ‘Ice’ and cocaine amount to 3.35 kilogrammes of dangerous drugs and falls to be considered under the sentencing guidelines in HKSAR v Abdallah Anwar Abbas [2009] 2 HKLRD 437. 3.35 kilogrammes falls within a range of sentencing of 23 to 26 years. I consider the correct sentence for that amount to be one of 25 years and 3 months if you were a simple courier.
But you were not a simple courier. You had rented a room for this enterprise and were responsible for storing these drugs over a period of time as it was clear that they were to be subdivided and sold on. You were responsible for utility bills. You must have been the middleman.
In accordance with HKSAR v Herry Jane Yusuph, CACC 93/2019, which did not bind Madam Justice Toh in your first trial, I have considered where your culpability lies and I consider that you are more blameworthy than a courier but not as culpable as the person who was to make the actual profit from dealing in drugs or the person who imported it from elsewhere. For this aggravating feature, I intend to enhance your sentence only by 3 months as the sentence which I must pass upon you is a significant one in any event. That makes a total sentence on Count 2 after trial of 25 years and 6 months.
As for Count 1, you were found guilty of simple possession of the drugs found within your cross-body bag. That would attract a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment. However, considering the sentence you face on Count 2, I will order that the whole of the sentence on Count 1 should run concurrently with that of Count 2, and therefore you will go to prison for 25 years and 6 months.