CRIMINAL CASE NO. 24 OF 2011
COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in dangerous drugs.
You were stopped in July of last year at our airport, and concealed about you, and you had also ingested, were dangerous drugs. The total amount was 289.92 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
It would have been explained to you that here we sentence drug traffickers on the basis of guidelines. Those guidelines are based on the nature of the drug and the quantity of it.
You fall into the 200 to 400 gramme bracket, attracting a starting point of imprisonment after trial of 12 to 15 years. On the face of it, you are almost halfway into the bracket.
There is the additional element that has to be catered for that your case has an international element, which is regarded as an aggravation and is reflected in some increase in the sentence.
You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and I will give you one-third discount for that, and also I will bear it in mind when I come to look for the right starting point, because how people behave is something that the courts can reflect generally in their sentence.
It was asserted, that you were doing this for a reward of US$500. It is the fact that, and I am sure you must have known it at the time, you risked your life doing this over $500, because if you had been caught in Malaysia or been caught in the People’s Republic over the border, where you intended to carry these drugs, that would certainly have been a potential penalty.
Doing the best I can for you, and in view of your pleas and your co‑operation, I will take a starting point that is discounted from being exactly halfway through the bracket, but I have to add something, and I had a notional period of something like 9 months in my mind, for the international element. I shall take a starting point of 13½ years.
That gives, after the discount, a sentence of 9 years’ imprisonment on this plea of guilty, and that is, in my judgment, the least sentence you can hope for in the circumstances.