COURT: The defendant pleaded guilty at the committal stage to two counts. 1st count, trafficking in a dangerous drug. Defendant is charged that on 17 October 2020, at the airport, trafficked 5.99 litres of a liquid containing 3,215 grammes of cocaine. The 2nd count is one of possession of dangerous drugs, in that the defendant is charged at his residence, possessed a small amount of crystalline solid containing methamphetamine hydrochloride and methamphetamine. Following his plea of guilty and admission of the relevant Summary of Facts, the defendant was committed to the Court of First Instance for sentence.
Although the facts admitted by the defendant made reference to another person who bring in drugs into Hong Kong, I would not take those facts into consideration in sentencing the defendant.
The defendant had before me confirmed his plea and admission of the facts and the facts are as follow.
On 17 October 2020, defendant arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Istanbul, Turkey via Frankfurt, Germany. At about 3.18 pm on the same day, he was intercepted by customs officers when he passed the green channel of the Customs Arrival Hall with his suitcase. He was directed for baggage examination and prior to examination, he admitted that the suitcase he was carrying belonged to him, and he unlocked the suitcase for examination.
Upon check, four bottles of purported red wine with wrapping materials were found inside the suitcase. Subsequent examination confirmed that a total of 5.99 litres of a liquid containing 3,215 grammes of cocaine was inside the purported wine.
You were arrested and cautioned and under caution, you stated that you have bought the four bottles of red wine in Istanbul for about HK$1,000 and they were gifts for your parents. You claimed that you travelled alone for the trip.
Further inquiries were conducted and under caution, you repeated that you travelled to Turkey alone and bought the red wine seized from a store in Turkey as gifts for your parents.
You were then taken for a house search and at your residence a small amount of dangerous drugs as particularised in the 2nd charge were located under your bed. Underneath your bed, there is also an electronic scale. You were further arrested and cautioned and under caution, you said the items found in your bedroom was ‘Pork’.
In a subsequent recorded interview, you remained silent.
Immigration record reveals that you departed Hong Kong on 4 October 2020. WhatsApp messages were found in your mobile phone between you and a person known as B. Those messages show that B had reimbursed you for the costs for the flight tickets and hotel bookings. B also asked you to report your whereabouts to him throughout the trip and also asked you to change the date of the return ticket.
There were also WhatsApp messages between you and a person Tai Wah. You told Tai Wah that you had taken all the things and Tai Wah confirmed with you that it was a total of four bottles.
Upon further investigation, it was found that a Mr Chan purchased your return ticket on the 16th from Travel Expert Limited in Causeway Bay. You further admitted at the material time that you knowingly imported the drugs seized in the charge and you possessed the drugs found at your residence.
The defendant was born on 20 December 1994, now 28 years old and was 25 at the time when these offences were committed. He was married with one daughter but now divorced. The decree nisi was made absolute on 6 June 2023.
He had previous convictions for possession of dangerous drugs and theft, both are in 2014 and were dealt with by being placed on probation order.
Prior to committing these offences, you used to be a forklift truck operator for a while but was unemployed and in debt at the time when these offences were committed.
He attained up to Form 2 education and was brought up in a single-parent family as his parents divorced when he was only 12 years of age. Since then he lived with his mother and an elder brother. You got married at a relatively young age, 23 or 24. There is no doubt that at the time of the offences you were a drug abuser.
It was advanced on your behalf that because of conflicts in how to raise the daughter, your relationship with your wife turned sour which ultimately led to the wife taking the daughter with her and staying with her maiden family.
This family disaccord had affected your work attitude and you took drugs again. You said at the time of the offences, you were in heavy debt and received threatening calls from debt collectors. Feeling helpless, you found an opportunity to earn quick money when browsing Facebook. You were promised a reward of $80,000 for bringing drugs back to Hong Kong.
You, family members, and relatives had all written letters pleading for mercy. However, as said by the court on many occasions, these sort of mitigation pleas do not count much in reducing sentence for such a serious offence.
As to your background and upbringing, I do not find any useful mitigating factors, neither do I accept that you committed these offences under any unbearable pressure. As a result, I found that the only mitigating factor in your case is your timely plea.
For the 1st count of trafficking in dangerous drugs, the drug involved is 3,215 grammes of cocaine and according to the tariff set down in HKSAR v Abdallah [2009] 2 HKLRD 437, it is within the sentencing range of 23 to 26 years. For amounts up to 4,000 grammes, a sentence of 26 years was suggested.
I accept that you were in the lowest band of culpability categorised in Yusuph [2021] 1 HKLRD 290, namely courier. I would therefore adopt 25 years as an initial starting point within the bands 23 to 26 years.
There is an aggravating factor in that drugs were being brought into Hong Kong via air. For that, an enhancement of not less than two years for quantities over 1 kilogramme is suggested in Abdallah.
I am persuaded that in view of what the Court of Appeal has said in Lau Chun Sing, CACC 233/2010, 2 years enhancement is sufficient deterrent in view of the harsh 25 years which I have adopted.
Therefore, taking the international element into account, I use 27 years as my ultimate starting point for the 1st count. As I said earlier, the only mitigating factor is your timely plea and I will give you one-third discount. Therefore, for the 1st count you will go to jail for 18 years.
For the 2nd count of simple possession of dangerous drugs, I have no doubt that they are for your own consumption. It is a pity that you had a previous similar conviction and you did not treasure the chance that was given to you on that occasion by the court.
I adopt a starting point of 6 months for the 2nd count and I do not see there is any latent risk of you supplying those drugs in Count 2 to others, therefore I would not enhance the 6 months I have adopted. For your early plea, I reduce it to 4 months.
As the sentence on the 1st count is a very lengthy one, I am of the view that the 4 months in Count 2 should be made to run concurrently with Count 1 in view of totality principle.
Therefore, the total sentence I pass on you is one of 18 years.