CRIMINAL CASE NO. 50 OF 2010
COURT: The defendant pleads guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134.
He was intercepted by Customs officers at the Kowloon Tong MTR Station. A search revealed a package containing several packets of drugs from beneath the front waistband of his trousers. He told officers that they were white powder, and he collected it for someone else.
Under analysis, the drugs were found to be 434.44 grammes of a mixture containing 287.26 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. The estimated retail value of the drugs was about $360,000.
The defendant is aged 37. He has three previous convictions, none of which are drug related. His last conviction was back in 1997 for an offence of managing a vice establishment. He received a suspended sentence and a fine.
By way of mitigation, I am told that the defendant has four young children in Shenzhen, aged from 3 to 10. Prior to his arrest, he was a casual construction worker, and contributed the majority of his income to his family. Counsel told me that the defendant committed the present offence not because he wanted to earn quick money, but that he had fallen prey of a plot by a so-called friend, who lent him $20,000 for his 6-year-old daughter to undergo an operation to cure her physical deformity. The friend then demanded repayment, and he was left with very little choice than to deliver the drugs in question, fearing that his family’s safety would be jeopardised. Counsel urged me to take into account of the unusual circumstances leading to his commission of the present offence and be as lenient in sentencing as possible.
In sentencing the defendant, I have considered his guilty plea, mitigation forwarded, and the existing tariff for trafficking in heroin. For narcotics between 200 to 400 grammes, the tariff is one between 12 to 15 years.
For the present case involving 287.26 grammes of heroin hydrochloride, I adopt a starting point of 13 years’ imprisonment. He is entitled to the full one-third discount for his plea.
He is sentenced to 104 months’ imprisonment. That is 8 years and 8 months.