COURT: The defendant had pleaded guilty in the lower court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 14.994 kilogrammes of a solid containing 12.822 kilogrammes of cocaine.
The facts which he admitted to is that in the evening of 8 December, a vessel was spotted by the marine police and was being driven to the Tung Chung Old Pier. One of the males on board the vessel passed a plastic bag and a carton box to the defendant, who was at that time standing on the pier. The defendant then walked towards Ma Wan Tung Area, and was intercepted by the police, and the drugs was found inside the plastic bag and the carton box he was carrying, and he was also found with a key card to a Tsing Yi hotel.
And under caution, the defendant asked for a chance and said he was helping a friend called “Man Po” to transport the drugs to a hotel room for a reward. And in a video-recorded interview, he said this person Man Po asked him to collect some drugs and he agreed, and that he would get a reward of $3,000. And he was told to go to the Tung Chung Old Pier. And shortly thereafter, after he arrived, he saw the vessel approaching and one of the passengers on board then handed him the plastic bag and the carton box, inside of which were the dangerous drugs.
And the estimated street value of the cocaine seized is in the region of $23,615,550 in powder form, and $29,988,000 if it were in crack form.
Now, as far as his antecedents is concerned, the defendant is 47 years old. And he has got previous convictions. He has had eight previous convictions, and amongst which is four convictions of possession of dangerous drugs and one of smoking or injection of dangerous drugs.
In mitigation, Mr Leung, in his written submissions, has really said everything he could possibly say on behalf of the defendant. Mr Leung attempted to persuade the court that he was frank with the police by revealing this person called Man Po, who he, what he said, was the person who induced him to traffic, and that this person Man Po was indeed interviewed by the police but nothing came out of that. So this indicates his co-operation and also his remorse. However, I do not think any credit can be given to him because there is just no evidence in relation to Man Po apart from what the defendant said.
Now, his biggest mitigation, really, is the fact that he did plead guilty at the earliest stage. And as Mr Leung correctly identified, the Court of Appeal has laid down sentencing guidelines, and that would be in the case of Abdallah in 2009, where for trafficking in between 4,000 to 15,000 grammes of cocaine, the range of imprisonment is from 26 to 30 years, of course, after trial before taking into account any aggravating factors.
So based on the guidelines as recommended by the Court of Appeal, in the present case, I would adopt the starting point of 29 years’ imprisonment and because he did plead guilty, he deserves the one-third off. And so the defendant is sentenced to prison for 19 years and 4 months.