CRIMINAL CASE NO. 200 OF 2012
COURT: I have to sentence you for trafficking in a dangerous drug. The drug in question was methamphetamine hydrochloride, “Ice”, and you were stopped at our airport with 1.19 kilogrammes of it.
You had set out from Benin. You went to Togo, then to Ethiopia, and then you came here, and you had flights on to Addis Ababa, where you were taking the drugs.
It will have been explained to you that the sentencing for drug trafficking here, where we have many drug trafficking cases, in order to promote consistency and an evenhanded justice, is based upon guidelines. The guidelines that exist are based on the nature of the drug and the quantity of it.
The drug in your case, “Ice”, had guidelines that ran out at 600 grammes, attracting a starting point of 18 years’ imprisonment after trial.
In 2009 there was a case called Abbas, where the Court of Appeal issued further guidelines in respect of large amounts of heroin. Heroin is thought to be a drug that is certainly no worse than “Ice”, and it has been the practice in this court - my court - and, I believe, in the other courts that do crime in the High Court, to use the heroin guideline for larger amounts over 600 grammes when dealing with the drug “Ice”.
So accordingly, you fall into a bracket that starts at 600 grammes and ends at 1,200 grammes, and you are right at the top of that. So after trial, on the face of it, there would be a starting point of 23 years’ imprisonment.
These matters are not entirely mathematical. I take the point that your counsel makes that you are not a financier, you are not a mastermind; you are a courier, and on that basis I shall take a starting point in that bracket of 22 years.
It is the fact that these courts add further punishment because of the international element that can exist in drug‑trafficking cases, and in your case there is an obvious international element. Accordingly, that 22-year starting point must be enhanced, and the standard enhancement is one of 2 years. There is no reason not to follow the standard practice.
Accordingly, after trial you would have faced a sentence of 24 years’ imprisonment.
You will equally know, because it will have been explained to you, that your plea of guilty earns you a one-third discount.
Accordingly, the sentence works out at one of 16 years’ imprisonment. In the circumstances of your case, I do not believe you could have expected a sentence less than that following the guidelines, and there has to be exceptional reason to move outside the guidelines. No exceptional reason exists in your case.
Accordingly, the sentence is one of 16 years’ imprisonment.