Upon entering the apartment, police officers seized some more suspected dangerous drugs which were later confirmed to include 324.1 grammes of methamphetamine, 11.01 grammes of cocaine, 457.02 grammes of ketamine, 31.57 grammes of MDMA ‘Ecstasy’, 0.99 grammes of heroin, and 141.25 grammes of herbal cannabis.
Under caution, the defendant admitted trafficking in those dangerous drugs for others as he had no money at the time.
The street value of the dangerous drugs was estimated to be about HK$582,000.
The defendant is now 20 and has a clear record. Prior to his arrest, he worked as a lift maintenance technician but lost his job due to the pandemic.
Mitigating letters including one from his mother have been produced. Understandably, they asked for leniency from this court. I understand the request from mother, unfortunately sentencing guidelines have been set by the higher court.
Trafficking in dangerous drugs is a serious offence. The Court of Appeal has laid down sentencing guidelines in respect of each dangerous drug and that this court must follow unless there are very exceptional circumstances.
Given the small amount of herbal cannabis, for the purpose of sentencing, I would ignore the herbal cannabis as it makes very little difference to the overall sentence.
In respect of Charge 1, the starting point would be set at 5 years’ imprisonment. As a result of the defendant’s earliest plea, the sentence is therefore reduced to 3 years and 4 months.
In respect of the 2nd charge, counsel from both sides kindly agree that the starting point for all those dangerous drugs come, using the combined approach, in particular the conversion test, to be 16 years and 6 months.
Likewise, the sentence will be reduced to 11 years, taking into account again of his earliest plea. Given the total amount of dangerous drugs in question, it is ordered that the sentences imposed on both charges are to run concurrently to each other.
For the two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug that the defendant stands convicted, he is therefore sentenced to a total of 11 years’ imprisonment.