CRIMINAL CASE NO. 425 OF 2009
COURT: You appear in this court today having pleaded guilty in the Magistracy, as your counsel has just reminded us, on 24 December 2009. You pleaded guilty to a single charge of unlawfully trafficking in dangerous drugs, namely 964.02 grammes of a mixture containing 543 grammes of heroin hydrochloride and 173.66 grammes of monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride.
Today you have confirmed in this court that you accepted the Summary of Facts that you had accepted earlier in the Magistracy as the basis upon which you pleaded guilty and upon which you are convicted and now to be sentenced.
Turning then to the facts, on the morning of 9 July 2009, you were intercepted by a Customs officer in the Customs clearance area at the Customs Arrival Hall A at Hong Kong International Airport. You had arrived a little earlier on a flight from Dhaka in Bangladesh.
Following a search, you were escorted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where an x-ray scan revealed the presence of foreign objects in your stomach. On suspicion that those objects were dangerous drugs, you were arrested, and remained silent under caution.
There is no dispute that monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride is a narcotic analgesic with similar potency to heroin hydrochloride. It is a controlled substance under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance as an ester of morphine. In the process of acetylation, monoacetylmorphine may be formed due to incomplete acetylation of heroin. Also, heroin may be partially hydrolysed by moisture to form monoacetylmorphine.
In a recorded interview under caution conducted of you by a Customs officer on 10 July 2009, the day after your arrest, you admitted that you had swallowed the pellets in Dhaka and were told that on successful delivery of them in Hong Kong, you would receive a monetary reward.
I turn then to mitigation. You are a resident of Guinea‑Bissau, in which country you were born on 9 February 1971. You counsel has told the court that you are married, with three young sons, and he has explained how you are anxious as to the welfare of your family, who rely upon you as the breadwinner. You have apparently had difficulties in contacting them.
I was told that you ran a small garment business, and travelled to Bangladesh to do business. Your business was in difficulties, and you yourself were therefore in financial difficulties. It is said that you were approached and offered US$3,000 to carry the drugs to Hong Kong; that you accepted the offer, but that you have not been paid any of that money.
Equally, it is stressed on your behalf that you expressed remorse for your misconduct, and invite this court to apply as lenient as possible a sentence.
I accept as the primary factors of mitigation, as your counsel has pointed out that supporting your assertions of remorse is relevant the fact that you admitted your role in this affair very soon after arrest when, on the following day, you were interviewed under caution; and secondly, that you pleaded guilty to this offence at the earliest possible opportunity.
I turn now to the starting point to be taken for sentence. I treat the two substances of which you were possessed in the powder mixture, namely heroin hydrochloride and monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride, they being a total of 716.66 grammes, as of equal potency, and the whole amount as being subject to the guidelines set out in the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Lau Tak Ming.
The fact that you committed this offence by way of importing the dangerous drugs into Hong Kong and did so in prospect of monetary reward is a factor of aggravation to be reflected in the starting point taken for sentence.
I take a starting point of 23 years' imprisonment.
In light of your plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity and your confession to the authorities, you are entitled to a discount of one-third from that taken as the starting point for sentence.
Accordingly, the sentence imposed upon you is one of 15 years and 4 months' imprisonment.