CRIMINAL CASE NO. 20 OF 2010
A further count of manufacturing has not been proceeded with. You will be dealt with, therefore, for trafficking in a dangerous drug and not manufacturing.
The drugs in Count 2 were, at the time of your interception, in fact in the possession of D1 as all three of you emerged from the premises in Parkland Villas. The drugs in Count 3 were subsequently found inside the premises from which you were emerging.
Upon your arrest and interview, you admitted possession of all of the drugs in the bag and in the premises, and said you were hired to keep an eye on the cocaine inside the apartment. Mr Dunn has said that for that purpose you were paid the sum of $1,000 per day.
It is clear that the drugs concerned were a valuable commodity, having a retail value of just under $2½ million. I incline to the view, in the light of that value and the fact that you had only very recently come out of prison in February of 2009 and were, according to the antecedents statement, at the time of your arrest, unemployed, that there must have been others connected with such a valuable consignment of cocaine apart from yourself.
Your counsel, Mr Dunn, has made a sensible plea on your behalf. He points out that whilst you are no stranger to drugs, you have no previous conviction for trafficking.
I do accept your remorse and the sentiments that you have expressed in the letter that you have written to the court which has been read out this morning. It is a matter of regret that you should come to the realisation of your position in the way that you have.
The burden of his submissions as to the length of sentence are firstly that in the circumstances here, the aggregate of the two counts to which you have pleaded guilty can be added together for sentencing purposes in order to identify the overall starting point, and the sentences then made wholly concurrent. Secondly, that if that is done, the starting point should be at the bottom of the relevant tariff band which, in your case, would be 23 to 26 years’ imprisonment.
The other way of looking at it is to pass individual sentences in respect of each count and consider whether to make them partly consecutive or wholly concurrent. Whichever approach is adopted, the result is, in this case, on these quantities, the same, and I am prepared to agree with the approach of your counsel and his submission that your case falls at the bottom end of the relevant range for an overall quantity of 1,610.44 grammes of cocaine.
The starting point for sentence which I adopt in relation to Count 2 is one of 9 years’ imprisonment, and in respect of Count 3, 23 years’ imprisonment.
I should add that you have been well advised by your solicitors and counsel in the pleas which you have tendered and which have been fairly accepted by the prosecution. Although I have not yet heard evidence as to the capacity and extent of the manufacturing operation in these premises, a look at the Government Chemist’s statement and the evidence on the papers, including the photographs, would suggest that this was a substantial manufacturing station.
The authorities are clear that normally, sentences for manufacturing are higher than for trafficking. A starting point after trial in respect of Count 1 for manufacturing would have been more than 23 years, and could have been, depending on the evidence as it emerged, somewhere between 25 and 27 years’ imprisonment, so your pleas have been sensibly advised and advanced.
As for mitigation, I understand your background and the difficulties which drove you, after you left prison in February 2009, back to the drugs business, but realistically, the only mitigation is your timely plea upon the indictment being put to you before me this morning.
I will give you a full one-third discount from the sentences I would have passed after trial in respect of the two trafficking counts.
Mr Yuen, would you stand, please. On Count 2 I pass a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment. On Count 3 I pass a sentence of 15 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. Both sentences will be ordered to run concurrently, making a total sentence of 15 years and 4 months’ imprisonment. That is my sentence.