CRIMINAL CASE NO. 197 OF 2011
COURT: Cheung Kam-tong, you have been committed to this court for sentence following your plea of guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to two charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
Just after 10 am on 6 December last year, you crossed the border from Hong Kong to the Mainland. At 1.25 pm you re-crossed the border at the Lo Wu control point.
There you were searched by Customs officers and four plastic bags containing ketamine were found to be wrapped around your waist.
The drugs involved were those referred to in the 1st charge, 2 kilogrammes of a powder containing 1.7 kilogrammes of ketamine.
You claimed that you were bringing the drugs into Hong Kong for somebody you did not know in return for a reward of $4,000 and that you were waiting for instructions for delivery.
You agreed to cooperate in a controlled delivery operation as you said somebody would come to your home to collect the drugs you had brought in from the Mainland, as well as other drugs which were stored at your home.
Pursuant to the controlled delivery operation the Customs officers took you to your home. You informed the Customs officers that the other drugs were in a drawer in a locked cabinet in your bedroom.
Those were the drugs referred to in the second charge, 1 kilogramme of powder containing 0.85 kilogrammes of ketamine. You admitted that those drugs had been brought over by you from the Mainland on an earlier occasion.
While you were at your home with the Customs officers you received calls from someone and invited that person to come to your home to take delivery of the drugs. However, ultimately that other person declined to attend to take delivery and the controlled delivery operation was abandoned. Later you refused to be interviewed.
It is apparent from the facts you have admitted, namely, that there were two quantities of drugs involved, that this was not a case of you yielding to temptation on one isolated occasion. You are a mature man and would have been well aware of the gravity of what you were doing and the fact that very serious consequences would follow if you were caught. You decided to take the risk because of the rewards you would be given.
As I am sure Miss Fung will have told you, the normal starting point for those who traffic in between 600 and 1,000 grammes of ketamine is between 12 and 14 years’ imprisonment. Quantities above that warrant starting points of 14 years and upwards.
If there is an international element or a cross-border element, such as in this case, then the starting point should be enhanced.
Insofar as Charge 1 is concerned, bearing in mind that you are somebody who has never before been convicted of an offence relating to drugs, I adopt an initial starting point of 15 years’ imprisonment which I enhance by one year to reflect the cross-border element. So the final starting point on the 1st charge is 16 years.
On Charge 2, I adopt a starting point of 13 years.
I have listened to all that Miss Fung has said on your behalf and I have read the letters from you and your family. It is clear you come from a very supportive family who care about you deeply. It is particularly tragic that you should have committed this offence when your wife was about to give birth to your child.
I take those matters into account. I also take into account the fact that you have not been convicted of a drug offence previously and your only previous convictions were over 20 years ago.
Those factors are, however, factors that can only be of limited significance in an offence of this gravity. The principal mitigation in your case are you pleas of guilty for which you are entitled to the usual discount of one-third. But there is also you cooperation in the controlled delivery operation for which I am prepared to give you a further discount.
On Charge 1 I sentence you to 9 years 7 months’ imprisonment. On Charge 2, 7 years 9 months’ imprisonment. Both sentences are to run concurrently, so the total sentence is 9 years 7 months.