CRIMINAL CASE NO. 23 OF 2011
COURT: The defendant pleads guilty to the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs which involved 2300-odd grammes of cocaine.
The facts admitted by the defendant disclosed that the Custom Officers had found the drugs in the defendant’s suitcase when he arrived at the Hong Kong Airport, via Germany. Later, in a cautioned interview, the defendant said he was doing this for US$5,000 which he needed to help his daughter who required surgery.
The defendant had a clear record in Hong Kong and I believe also in Bolivia.
Mr Laskey, in his mitigation, pointed out that the daughter’s rare illness was the reason why the defendant, who was otherwise a simple hawker in Bolivia, had to take the risk to traffic the drugs to Hong Kong.
The relevant medical evidence was produced and I am prepared to accept that was the case that the daughter was ill. Of course, Mr Laskey accepted, correctly, that such personal circumstances could not constitute any strong mitigating factor. The amount of drugs in this case is, indeed, a very large quantity.
Considering the relevant authorities, in particular HKSAR v Abdallah Abbas, CACC304/2008, although there is an international element involved, I shall adopt the starting point of 24 years. Because of the defendant’s plea of guilty, I shall reduce the sentence to 16 years.
The defendant had been co-operative from the start and tried to offer some assistance to the Customs Officers to locate the other members of the syndicate. For this, and with his daughter’s situation, I am prepared to further reduce the sentence by 6 months. Hence the sentence is 15 years and 6 months.