COURT: Defendant, the jury has found you guilty of two charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs after trial. They have found that on 10 April 2018, you trafficked in 204 grammes of ketamine; that is in Charge 1, and 64.47 grammes of ketamine in Charge 2 at the Fuk On Factory Building, No 1123 Canton Road, Mong Kok, Kowloon, at the Apple Storage inside locker 1003.
Very briefly, I shall turn to the facts. At about 20 minutes past midnight on 10 April 2018, police officers who were on an anti-drug operation saw you enter the Fuk On Factory Building and followed you into the building. When they entered the building, they saw you at locker 1003 with the door open handling drugs. When they approached you, they asked you what you were doing, you did not reply.
The inside of locker 1003 was searched and inside the locker was found the drugs as stated in Charge 1, that is the bigger packet referred to in the trial as the ‘Glad Bag’ inside a Marlboro carton cigarette box which was inside a grey bag which you were observed to have walked into the building carrying this bag.
On the floor of the locker was found the drugs stated in Charge 2. Some of the drugs, that is 11 packets, were packed with it together in a single bag and Exhibit P3 was on its own. In the locker, there were utensils or other paraphernalia used for the packaging of drugs such as electronic scales, 88 unused small transparent bags and a cutter.
You admitted under caution that the drugs belonged to you and the drugs were in your possession for the purposes of sale to others.
Mr Wong, your counsel, has not put forward any mitigating factors on your behalf. I find there are no mitigating factors. You are a man aged 48. You have 13 previous convictions ranging from offences mostly related to dishonesty from 1986 to 1991. For those offences, approximately 12 of them, you were still a young man. The latest conviction in 1998, you were sentenced to 120 hours of community service for an offence of theft from vehicle.
You are single and had completed Form 3 education in Hong Kong. Defendant, as Mr Wong has rightly observed, the Court of Appeal has set down guidelines for trafficking in the drug ketamine. These guidelines are binding on this court and you shall be sentenced according to those guidelines. The relevant case to which the guidelines for trafficking in ketamine is Secretary of Justice v Hii Siew Cheng [2009] 1 HKLRD 1.
You have been convicted by the jury after trial. The sentence guideline in Hii Siew Cheng is as follows. For trafficking between 50 and 300 grammes, on conviction after trial, is between 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment. For trafficking in 300 to 600 grammes of ketamine after trial is a sentence between 9 to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Although the charges are separate, I shall take the total amount of drugs that you were trafficking in. I will then sentence you individually for each charge and give you a total sentence.
As you know, defendant, trafficking in dangerous drugs is a very serious offence indeed. The sentences set by the Court of Appeal reflect the seriousness of this offence. There are no mitigating factors put forward on your behalf to which the sentence should be reduced and nor are there any aggravating factors such that the sentence should be enhanced.
The amount of ketamine in Count 1 is 204 grammes. The amount of ketamine in Count 2 is 64.47 grammes. Therefore the total amount of drugs that you were trafficking in amounts to 268.47 grammes. In sentencing you for that quantity of ketamine and following the relevant guidelines of Hii Siew Cheng, on conviction after trial, the appropriate sentence is one of 8 years and 6 months’ imprisonment to which you shall so be sentenced.
I must however sentence you individually for the charges to which the jury have found you guilty.
For Charge 1, for trafficking 204 grammes of ketamine, you shall be sentenced to 7 years and 9 months’ imprisonment.
For Charge 2, for 64.47 grammes of ketamine, you shall be sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment.
To reflect the total sentence of 8 years, 6 months, I order 9 months of Charge 2 to run consecutive to Charge 1 and the remaining term in Charge 2 to run concurrent which makes a total term of 8 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.