CRIMINAL CASE NO. 321 OF 2012
COURT: The defendant, aged 37, is the holder of a Tanzanian passport. He arrived at the airport on 27 March this year on a flight from Addis Ababa and was in transit awaiting a flight to Nansha.
In due course he was found to have ingested 91 packets which contained a mixture weighing 1.35 kilograms containing 0.61 of a kilogram of heroin hydrochloride and 0.16 of a kilogram of 6 monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride, which is similar in its potency to heroin.
The drugs had an estimated street value of $1,050,560.
The sentencing band under the guidelines in HKSAR v Abdallah [2009] 2 HKLRD 437 is 20 to 23 years’ imprisonment for between 600 and 1200 grammes of heroin, and here of course the total narcotic weight was 626 grammes.
In my judgment, a proper starting point here would be 20 years’ imprisonment, with 12 months’ enhancement of that sentence for the element of importation, which in Hong Kong has long been regarded as an aggravating factor.
I am told that the defendant was very easily tempted by a sum of money equivalent to 5 years’ wages if he had stayed in his employment.
The high sentencing tariffs are intended as a deterrent to people who might otherwise be tempted, but it seems that however high the tariff, there will always be those who cannot resist the temptation of easy money.
Mr Athumani, would you stand, please? You have pleaded guilty at an early stage, and you will receive the full credit for a plea of guilty. That is to say that your sentence will be reduced by one-third.
The starting point of 21 years, therefore, after trial, is reduced to 14 years’ imprisonment.