COURT: Defendant, you pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs before a magistrate sitting at the Eastern Magistracy on 11 April 2023. You admitted that on 14 August 2021, at Room D, 4th Floor, Mei Lun House, Nos 40-42 Tai Nan Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, you unlawfully trafficked in 495.52 grammes of a crystalline solid containing 495.51 grammes of methamphetamine hydrochloride and 0.74 grammes of a solid containing 0.65 grammes of cocaine. The facts to which you admitted are as follows.
On 14 August 2021, police officers in uniform who were on patrol saw you outside the building at Nos 1125-1127 Canton Road, Mong Kok. These officers were in uniform. When you saw the presence of the officers, you immediately went into the lift lobby of the building at those numbers at Canton Road. Feeling suspicious, the police officers went to intercept you and you were intercepted by a police officer.
The police officer found upon you a bunch of keys and cash of $798. Upon enquiry by the officer, you confirmed that you lived in the address as stated in the charge. Subsequently, you revealed to them that there was a black eco-friendly bag containing 20 ounces of ‘Ice’ hidden in a shelf above the wall of the living room in Room D.
The following morning at 4.40 am on 15 August 2021, the police officers gained access to Room D, a studio apartment with the keys found upon your person. A search of Room D was conducted and in the cupboard which was the shelf built inside the wall in Room D, three black bags were found.
In one bag, all the drugs as quantified in the charge were found which were contained in 24 plastic bags.
In the second black bag, there were a large number of resealable plastic bags and an electronic scale.
And the third black bag, items such as an aluminium tray, two glass containers, two plastic containers, an iron spade, two sieves, another electronic scale and two a large number of resealable plastic bags were found.
The estimated street value of the ‘Ice’ found was about approximately $350,333 whereas the value of the cocaine was approximately HK$850 if in powder form or $1,083 if it were to be in crack form.
Also found in Room D was a tenancy agreement for Room D in your name.
Upon arrest for trafficking in dangerous drugs, in a video-recorded interview on 15 August, you admitted that you kept the drugs in Room D, a place you rented. It was your residence and you lived there alone. You were the only one who had the keys to Room D. You admitted that after purchasing the bulk of the ‘Ice’ which was about 495 grammes, you had stored them in Room D and had intended to sell them to others. There were 18 bags of 495 grammes found and you had intended to sell each bag for $13,000 each.
There was a smaller amount of ‘Ice’ found of 0.52 grammes of ‘Ice’ and the cocaine found you admitted were for your own consumption. You admitted that the electronic scales found were for weighing the ‘Ice’ for the purpose of selling to others. he plastic bag was for packaging the‘Ice’ and the iron spade found was to separate the ‘Ice’.
Defendant, in regards to your antecedents, you were born in Hong Kong and are now aged 39. You have been educated up to Form 3 and you have been working as a logistic worker prior to your arrest.
You have 18 previous convictions obtained on four occasions. Your last conviction was similar to the present conviction to which you were sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment in 2018 at the District Court. You were discharged from prison for that sentence on 22 September 2020.
You claim you are a drug addict of ‘Ice’ and do not suffer from any illness. You live with your parents who are in Yuen Long, and your mother and uncle are here today in court.
Mr Wong Hay-yiu has mitigated on your behalf and in his written submissions, he has said that the reason why you committed this offence was in order to earn more money as your income dropped from $18,000 a month to $8,000 to $10,000 a month. You had contributed approximately $12,000 to $13,000 per month to your parents and therefore you sought to earn more money.
As Mr Wong has said, you volunteered the information to the police officers that you lived in Room D and told them about the drugs in Room D before you were even cautioned.
Defendant, turning to sentence, you had been trafficking in two types of drugs, ‘Ice’ and cocaine. In sentencing you, I shall take the combined and conversion approach by converting the cocaine to ‘Ice’ using ‘Ice’ as the base drug to sentence you.
You had been trafficking in 0.65 grammes of cocaine. The tariff case for trafficking in cocaine is that of Lau Tak Ming. For trafficking up to 10 grammes of cocaine, an appropriate sentence after trial is one of 2 to 5 years’ imprisonment. For this quantity of cocaine of 0.65, an appropriate sentence after trial is one of 2 years’ imprisonment. By converting this amount equivalent to ‘Ice’ in my view is too nominal to convert to ‘Ice’ and therefore it will be equivalent to 0 grammes of ‘Ice’.
For the amount of ‘Ice’ that you had been trafficking in, the amount was 495.51 grammes. The leading case for trafficking in ‘Ice’ is that of Tam Yi Chun. For trafficking in that quantity of ‘Ice’, that falls within the bracket of between 300 to 600 grammes, is a starting point of between 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment.
In this case, defendant, you were a storekeeper of drugs and also the actual trafficker of drugs, intending to sell these drugs on yourself. That was your role. Taking that into account, had you been convicted after trial, I would have taken a starting point of 18 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.
As stated in the case of Abdallah, where a trafficker has previously been convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs, this is an aggravating factor calling for an enhancement of sentence. Your last offence committed was in 2018 for the similar offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs. Less than a year after you had been released from prison, you committed this exact same offence again. Therefore, this calls for an enhancement from the starting point.
In this case, as Mr Wong has mitigated, no drugs were found on you and nor were you found near your place of residence. Before caution, you yourself had revealed to the police officers your residence and you had kept drugs in your residence. So, you were the one who revealed this offence to the police. I consider this to be a mitigating factor.
However, in these circumstances, an aggravation that I would have imposes upon you on committing a similar offence, I shall set off with the discount that you would have been awarded as you had revealed this offence to the officers. In the circumstances, I will maintain and keep the starting point at 18 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.
The strongest mitigating factor in this case, defendant, is therefore your plea of guilty at the first opportunity. In the circumstances it warrants the full one-third discount.
You shall therefore be sentenced to a term of 12 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.