COURT: The defendant had admitted to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs in the Magistrates’ Court and has been committed to this court for sentence. The particulars are that he was trafficking in 574 grammes of a solid containing 439 grammes of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which is “MDMA” and 503.3 grammes of a solid containing 262.5 grammes of ketamine.
The facts are that on 4 November 2021 in the night time, he was seen outside a convenience store in Shun Lee Estate. He was intercepted by the police and upon a body search, a mobile phone was seized from him. He was then escorted back to his home in Shun Lee Estate. And on the strength of a search warrant, his premises were searched.
And in the defendant’s bedroom were found the drugs which is the subject matter of the charge. And when the drugs were found, he was cautioned and the defendant admitted that he had bought them for reselling to others. And then in the drawer of the writing desk was found 92 resealable plastic bags, four electronic scales and two heat sealing machines.
And the defendant admitted that they were for packing the drugs to be sold to others.
And in a subsequent video-recorded interview, the defendant said he had bought the drugs for about $200,000, and he would then repack them into smaller bags for selling. And he would then make calls to his friends to see if they want to buy drugs, and he would deliver the drugs to them. And he said the electronic scales were for weighing the drugs, the heat sealing machines were for sealing the bags containing the drugs, and that he lives with his parents in the unit but he locks his bedroom door when he is not there.
The estimated street value of the ketamine is $337,714. I am informed by Mr Leung, for the prosecution, that MDMA is not a popular drug on the street and he was informed that it was therefore difficult to assess the retail value of MDMA at that time.
The defendant is aged 23 and has not a very good record. However, for his four previous convictions, none of them were to do with drugs. At the same time when the police were in his premises, offensive weapons were found in his premises. And he was subsequently charged with possession of those offensive weapons, and he had pleaded guilty to them and received a sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment. Now that offence is totally unrelated to the present offence.
Mr Ho has said everything he can possibly say on behalf of the defendant in his skeleton submissions. And it is without a doubt that drug trafficking is a very serious offence, particularly in this case when the defendant not only bought the drugs himself but was repackaging it for sale, and in fact pro-acted in getting customers to buy from him.
So as far as the sentencing guidelines is concerned, as Mr Ho properly identified, it is to be found in the case of HKSAR v Hii Siew Cheng in 2009. The sentencing guidelines for ketamine and MDMA are similar. So in brief, for trafficking in 600 grammes to 1,000 grammes, the range for the drug will be about 12 to 14 years after trial.
Now, in this case, the defendant is not only just a storekeeper. He was actively selling the drug, and as I have said, proactively getting customers to buy from him. So Mr Ho had worked out mathematically that for the total amount of 701.5 grammes of ketamine and MDMA, it would attract a sentence of about 12½ years mathematically. However, considering the role of the defendant in this case, I would adopt a starting point of 13 years’ imprisonment.
However, the defendant did plead guilty at the earliest opportunity, so he gets one-third off. And so the sentence is reduced to 8 years and 8 months.
Now, Mr Ho also submitted that since the knives which were found in his premises, the subject matter of the possession of offensive weapons charge, was found at the same time, that the court could consider making the sentence either partly consecutive or concurrent to the 6 months’ sentence in the possession of offensive weapons charge. I had given some thought to that, but however, this is a totally distinct offence not related to the drug trafficking offence. So I would not make the sentence in this case in any way concurrent with the 6 months’ imprisonment he had already been given. So the 8 years and 8 months’ sentence will be consecutive to the 6 months he is now serving.