CRIMINAL CASE NO. 203 OF 2012
COURT: The jury have convicted you of trafficking in over a kilogram of heroin.
You will have known from an early stage that the sentencing for drug trafficking is based upon guidelines, and that those guidelines are based on the nature of the drug and the quantity of it.
The guideline that is engaged in respect of the amount here runs from 600 grammes to 1,200 grammes, attracting a starting point of imprisonment after trial of 20 to 23 years.
The exact amount of heroin you trafficked was 1.07 kilograms.
I sentence you on the basis that your role was no greater than to be a courier. I will not be entirely mathematical in following the guideline. I shall set a preliminary starting point, as it were, within that bracket, of 21 years.
However, I am bound to add to that by reason of the fact that the offence is aggravated by carrying the drugs across international borders, and the aggravation is, in effect, following the guidelines of the Court of Appeal, such that it will increase your sentence by 2 years to 23 years.
It is a long sentence, but those who carry drugs know the stakes that are played for, and indeed it is right to point out that if you had been stopped at the commencement of your journey, or if you had carried those drugs on back into China, in either of those other places you would have faced the death penalty.
The sentence is one of 23 years’ imprisonment.