HKSAR v. Castillo Caicedo Teresa

HCCC 124/2017

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 124 OF 2017

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

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COURT:

Defendant, on 10 April 2017, you pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, before a magistrate at the Eastern Magistracy. As a result of your plea of guilty, you have been committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.

The trafficking charge was committed on 19 September 2016. On that date, you arrived in Hong Kong by plane. You were intercepted at the Hong Kong International Airport arrival hall by a customs officer. Nothing illegal was found from your personal belongings. However, you were suspected to have internal concealment of drugs. You were therefore sent to the North Lantau Hospital for X-ray which did reveal there were foreign objects inside your body. You were then transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and remanded in a custodial ward there.

During your stay in hospital, until 23 September 2016, you discharged a total of 14 packets of liquid cocaine which were subsequently examined and confirmed to be containing a total of 365 grammes of a liquid containing 252 grammes of cocaine, which forms the subject of the trafficking charge.

In September 2016, the cocaine had a retail value of around HK$400,000.

On 20 September 2016, customs officers obtained a cautioned statement from you and you had said that a Columbian, whom you have met only twice, offered you a job to bring the liquid to Hong Kong for a reward of US$5,000. You had financial problems, therefore you accepted the offer. You then swallowed the packets of liquid. You were to go to a certain hotel in Hong Kong and then someone was supposed to pick up the packets of liquid. The US$1,200 found in your possession, $800 was given to you by the Columbian whilst the remaining $400 was your own money.

Mr Hanif Mughal, your counsel, has, in his usual eloquence and full mitigation on your behalf, informed me as to how a lady of 39 years of age and clear record was led into commission of this offence.

You are a Venezuelan national but were living in Brazil. You are single but have three children, from two cohabitants, aged 15, 9 and 3. You were a hawker in Brazil earning US$200 a month. In Brazil, you had accumulated debts of up to US$3,000. As a result of these debts, they were putting pressure on you and you were being hounded and, as a result of which, you committed this offence.

As Mr Mughal said, the explanation is that you were in financial difficulties and you were thrown what you thought was a financial lifeline, being offered US$5,000, as a solution to your financial difficulties and you succumbed to this offence that put your life and liberty at risk. Mr Mughal has correctly reflected the fact that your only real and strongest mitigating factor is your early plea of guilty at the committal stage.

The guideline case for trafficking in cocaine is that of Lau Tak Ming. The starting point for trafficking in cocaine of amounts of between 200 and 400 grammes is between 12 and 15 years’ imprisonment. You were trafficking in 252 grammes of cocaine. Had you been convicted after trial, an appropriate starting point would have been one of 12 years and 9 months’ imprisonment.

In committing this offence, there was an aggravating factor in that you brought these drugs from abroad into Hong Kong and that is usually referred to as an international element which calls for an enhancement of the starting point, and in following the case of Chung Ping Kun, I enhance that starting point by 6 months’ imprisonment. Therefore, the sentencing point, had you been convicted after trial, would be one of 13 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.

Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty and reducing that term by one-third, you shall be sentenced to 8 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.