HKSAR v. Reyes Laboriel Ingrid Caridad

HCCC 4/2017

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 4 OF 2017

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:

Miss Reyes, on 1 January 2017, you pleaded guilty before the Eastern Magistracy to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, contrary to sections 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap 134.

You accepted that you had arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on 14 June 2016, with 1,008 grammes of liquid cocaine within your body, having travelled to Hong Kong from Sao Paulo in Brazil via Doha.

Upon arrest and caution, you admitted that you had brought the cocaine into Hong Kong for a reward of US$7,000. But you were able to give, unfortunately, no other assistance to the authorities about those who passed you the drugs in Sao Paulo, save for the names of Prince and the lady, Anne-Marie, with a telephone number.

The estimated street value of the drugs that you brought into Hong Kong was $1,996,974.

Of course, you had no idea of the consequences of the amount of dangerous drugs you were asked to carry into Hong Kong and that is why people like yourself are asked to do so and act as drug mules. I do understand that you were approached in Honduras in very difficult circumstances, when you were in hospital visiting your brother who was injured at the time and that the prospect of paying hospital bills for which you did not have the means meant that you were susceptable to an approach by manipulative people who could use the debt hanging over you to do something you would not have done otherwise.

The difficulty, Miss Reyes, that the courts face here in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, is that the trafficking of dangerous drugs is an evil which affects very many people directly and indirectly it affects their families and communities. Drug dealers are always looking for ways to transport their goods and to avoid detection and they use people who are wholly ignorant of what could happen to them if they were caught carrying large quantities of dangerous drugs.

It may not feel like it today but you were very lucky that you were destined for Hong Kong and not for Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore where your fate would have been far worse.

I have no doubt that you are remorseful. I have no doubt that you lived in poverty-stricken circumstances and you were doing everything you could to simply survive. But every society must have rules within which its citizens live, Miss Reyes, otherwise there would be anarchy and the criminal law is derived for the protection of society. Drugs are an evil which cannot be condoned and we wish to eradicate them no matter how overwhelming that task appears to be.

I do sincerely hope that you do join the campaign that Father Wotherspoon and others are engaged upon. That campaign may stop somebody just like you from being so foolish as to take such a huge risk with their life.

But at present, the Court of Appeal has not condoned a reduction in sentence for that assistance. Although it may be that as the campaign becomes more successful and statistics are available to support that suggestion, the Court of Appeal might be persuaded in future to revisit that view. If it does so and you are part of it, you might benefit from it in the future. But on its own, I am afraid I am precluded from giving you a discount for your offer to assist.

Miss Reyes, you are 41 years of age. You are an adult and you knew what it was you were doing. You cannot be treated differently from others who come before these courts, otherwise they can properly say that they have been treated unfairly. There has to be parity of sentence and only the most exceptional circumstances will provide any mitigation for the international trafficking in dangerous drugs. A large proportion of those who come before this court come from circumstances just like yours. Who else would be foolish enough to take such risks for what, in relative terms, is a small amount of money? Although I am sure, to you, it felt like a fortune and an end to your troubles.

Miss Reyes, the guideline case, as you will have been told by Mr Cahill, for trafficking in between 600 and 1,200 grammes of cocaine is HKSAR v Abdallah [2009] 2 HKLRD 437, and the range of sentencing is between 20 and 23 years. So for 1,008 grammes of cocaine, the starting point after trial is 22 years.

And there is also the aggravating feature of the importation into Hong Kong. According to the Court of Appeal in the same case, for amounts over 1 kilogramme, the enhancement should not be less than 2 years. However, you are on the very cusp of that guideline and if the narcotic content has just been 10 grammes less, you would have fallen the other side of it.

Taking that into account and your medical situation which is not resolved, and all the other matters advanced before the court, I will enhance your sentence by just 1 year, to make a total of 23 years.

There is no other mitigation which has been advanced on your behalf which can mitigate the sentence further as this type of offending is seen as extremely serious and nothing other than a deterrent sentence is appropriate in this case. You will of course receive a full one-third discount for entering your plea at the first opportunity.

But Miss Reyes, you must go to prison for 15 years and 4 months.