COURT: The defendant had pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely, 71.39 grammes of a solid containing 59.16 grammes of cocaine and 33 tablets containing 1.75 grammes of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
The facts are that on 15 March 2023, the defendant was intercepted by the police in the lift lobby of Yuet Kwai House. Upon executing a search warrant inside the defendant’s bedroom were found the dangerous drug which is the subject matter of this charge. Also found were resealable plastic bags and an electronic scale and a spoon.
And the defendant was thus arrested. Under caution, the defendant said that the cocaine was for selling to others and that the MDMA were for his own consumption.
In a subsequent cautioned video-recorded interview, the defendant said that he bought the cocaine and that after purchasing the cocaine, he repacked the cocaine into small packets, and he would sell the repacked cocaine at $400 a pack. And he said that he had bought 100 tablets of MDMA at $13,000 in one go, and that his family knew nothing about his drug trafficking activity. He said that the electronic scale was to weigh the cocaine for repackaging and the resealable plastic bags were for repacking the cocaine.
And the estimated market price of the cocaine is just over HK$77,000 for cocaine powder and over $95,000 for crack cocaine. And as far as the MDMA discovered by the police, it would be about just over $2,000 on the market at the market price.
The defendant is aged 26 and has a clear record. And it is all too often the case that the reason for committing the present offence is because he needed money. The defendant had received education up to Secondary 6 and became a self-employed table tennis trainer. However, because of COVID, he became unemployed due to the closures of schools and sport centres. And although the defendant is single, he had a baby with his girlfriend. However, after the baby was born, his girlfriend then abandoned the baby and him.
So, therefore, in mitigation, Mr Cheung submitted that because he was in need of money, he therefore turned to this evil trade in order to make fast money. And two letters were submitted by Mr Cheung, one from the defendant and one from his mother. The defendant says he is remorseful and asks for leniency. And also his mother asks for leniency because at the moment the baby is being looked after by his grandparents.
Drug trafficking is a very serious offence. It causes a lot of tragedy in Hong Kong society. And so the Court of Appeal, recognising that, has laid down guidelines for sentencing for these types of drugs.
And Mr Cheung correctly pointed out that for cocaine, the guidelines were laid down in the case of Lau Tak Ming. For trafficking in between 50 to 200 grammes of cocaine, a range of imprisonment from 8 to 12 years is recommended. And as far as MDMA is concerned, the guidelines for sentencing was laid down in SJ v Hii Siew Cheng in 2009. And for trafficking between 1 to 10 grammes of MDMA, the sentence would attract between 2 and 4 years.
Now, Mr Cheung also very correctly did the various tests. And I agree with Mr Cheung that the best and fair test to adopt would be the conversion test. And that is working out the conversion, treating the MDMA as cocaine, the starting point would be about 8 years and 4 months. And however, I do recognise the fact that the defendant is not just a courier. He was actually selling the drug from his store of cocaine and he repackaged it.
So there is no mitigating factor apart from the fact that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. So he is deserving of the one-third discount. So having worked out, giving him the one-third discount, the overall sentence I would give him would be 5½ years’ imprisonment. So the defendant goes to prison for 5½ years.