COURT: You have pleaded guilty to a count of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The particulars of the offence is that on 16 August 2022, at Flat A, 10th Floor, Bute Wah Mansion, No. 565 Reclamation Street in Mong Kok, you unlawfully trafficked 153.2 grammes of a mixture containing 122.9 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
The facts are as follows. On 16 August 2022, at about 11.20 pm, police officers were lying in ambush outside Flat A, 10th Floor, Bute Wah Mansion, 565 Reclamation Street. You walked out from the metal gate, locked the gate behind you. You were then intercepted. Upon initial enquiry, you said that you lived in Room A of the unit.
Body search was conducted on you. Upon search, one resealable plastic bag containing 100 packets containing 33.2 grammes of a mixture, which in turn containing 26.4 grammes of heroin hydrochloride, was found under your armpit. A mobile phone with a phone case and cash of HK$210 kept inside the phone case was found on you as well as two keys.
You were arrested and under caution, you admitted that you took the white powder to sell as you had no money. Police used the keys found on you to open the metal gate of the unit and the metal gate of Room A, which you said you resided.
A search was conducted in Room A of the unit. Upon search, the following items were found in the shelf near the bed:
(i) one plastic bag containing 120 grammes of a mixture containing 96.5 grammes of heroin hydrochloride;
(ii) another resealable plastic bag containing a large number of resealable plastic bags;
(iii) another resealable plastic bag also containing a large number of resealable plastic bags.
Other than that, there is a lighter, electronic scale, metal clip, a plastic straw with a sharp end, and a container containing pieces of green plastic wrappings.
You were again arrested and under caution, you admitted that you would take the bag of drugs to sell. You were interviewed later and you stated, among other things, the following matters. You said the “white powder” which you mentioned upon your arrest meant heroin. The “white powder” found on you and the “white powder” found inside Room A was the same type, which was heroin. At the time that you were intercepted by a police officer outside the unit, you were preparing to take the dangerous drugs to Kowloon City. Drugs found on you was obtained from a person named “Ah Fai” whom you found at Nam Cheong Street on 15 August 2022. The drugs found on you would be passed to an unknown person in Kowloon City. The drug was packed by you at your home and you do not know the value of the drug. You said no one gave you instructions to deliver the drugs to Kowloon City. You said a remuneration of $1,000 would be paid to you by “Ah Fai” after you successfully delivered the drugs to Kowloon City. The mobile phone that was seized upon your arrest was used by you to communicate with “Ah Fai” and also your personal use. You said you were the only person renting Room A and was the only person residing in Room A. Other than you, no one else had the keys to Room A and the keys found on you were for opening the doors to Room A. No one arranged, helped, or gave you instructions to pack the drugs in Room A. You also admitted the plastic bags, the lighter, the wrappings, the straw, the scale, and the clip were all for packing drugs. In particular, you said you used the straw with one end cut to take some white powder out from the bag and weigh them using the scale. Then you would use the wrapping to wrap the “white powder” and seal it up using the lighter. You stated that you did not have any income and you used to be a CSSA recipient.
DNA samples were taken from the surface of the plastic bag containing the drugs in Room A, the straw, and the clip. And upon forensic examination, it was found that the DNA found on these could all have originated from you.
The total amount of dangerous drugs seized in this case is 153.2 grammes of a mixture containing 122.9 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
Estimated street value of all seized dangerous drugs in the present case was HK$133,000-odd.
Your counsel has said everything that could have been said on your behalf. In particular, he stressed that I should not adopt a higher starting point in view of your criminal record. He urged upon me that you have been able to keep out of trouble, so to speak, for gaps, though you have previous convictions for trafficking.
Moreover, he said that because of your own drug addiction problem, you are being used as the foot soldier in trafficking in order to support your own vice habit. Be that as it may, I am not prepared to give you a discount for being a victim of your own offence. The fact that you are a drug addict and have to commit this offence in order to support your own vice habit is no mitigation.
Mr Wong also urged upon me on your behalf that I should give you some discount for self-consumption. He put before me on your instruction that 20 to 25 per cent of the drugs in the present case was for your own consumption. Mr Wong said on your behalf that you were being given some heroin or white power in lieu of money.
I made it clear to Mr Wong I have difficulty in accepting from counsel that part of the drugs found on this occasion on you and inside the unit are for self-consumption in view of what you have said under caution on two occasions. Furthermore, when you were interviewed, which was video recorded later in the police station, you further admitted that a remuneration of $1,000 was paid to you by “Ah Fai” after you successfully delivered the drugs found on you to Kowloon City.
In view of these admissions and in view of what was found in the unit, they are mainly packing materials with no inhaling heroin apparatus found. I am afraid that I do not have any evidential basis for upholding that part of the drugs found on you or inside the unit are for your own consumption. I offer you the opportunity of holding a Newton inquiry. The invitation was declined.
In the circumstances, I am afraid that I cannot give you and will not give you any discount for your claim of self-consumption.
You were born in 1977. You have only received up to Primary 6 education and you have quite a long record since 1993. Those convictions including most of them are dishonesty offences. In particular, you have been on three occasions convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs. One in 2008, one in 2009, and the last one in 2016. It seems from the record, you are making your living by committing petty crimes, dishonesty crimes, and also drug trafficking.
The two lots of drugs found amount to 122.9 grammes of heroin hydrochloride. According to Lau Tak Ming, for heroin between 50 to 200 grammes, the sentence range is 8 to 12 years. From the materials now before me, there is no evidence to suggest that your role is other than a courier and storekeeper.
Given I accept your role as a courier or storekeeper, which is at the lowest end of the scale of culpability, for that quantity of heroin hydrochloride I adopt an initial starting point of 9 years and 11 months.
As I said, I will not give you any discount for your claim of self-consumption. There is an aggravating factor in this case, in that you have been convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs on three other occasions. In view of your record, I increase my initial starting point by 7 months.
The only discount I can give you is your timely plea and I see no reason I should not give you a full one-third discount for that.
For the offence which you have pleaded guilty to, I sentence you to a term of imprisonment for 7 years.