COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of keeping a divan and one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 35 and section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance respectively. He is committed to this court for sentence.
In the morning on 3 May 2024, police officers raided an apartment in Argyle Street, Mong Kok. Inside the apartment, 2.96 grammes of heroin, 13.73 grammes of methamphetamine, 2.74 grammes of cocaine, 124 midazolam tablets and various drug paraphernalia such as electronic scales, metal spoon, lighters, etc, were seized. Posters depicting price list of different types and quantities of drugs consumed therein were displayed inside the apartment too.
The street value of all those dangerous drugs in question was estimated to be between HK$18,000 and HK$19,000.
Under caution, the defendant admitted that he was recruited to act as the person in charge of the apartment in providing drug abusers to purchase and consume dangerous drugs therein. In return, he would receive $1,500 for each day’s operation. The defendant, in essence, accepted that between 2 May and 3 May 2024, he was keeping a divan and selling an array of dangerous drugs to consumers at the divan upon their request.
The defendant is now 49, educated up to Form 3 level. He has 19 criminal conviction records with multiple possession and trafficking dangerous drugs records. The defendant also committed the present offences while he was on bail.
The operation of the divan was not small. At the time of the raid, that is 6:23 am in the morning, 13 customers were found inside. A rather busy divan at such time of the day.
Given the scale of his operation, a starting point of 24 months will be adopted. After a plea, the sentence is therefore reduced to one of 16 months’ imprisonment.
For the trafficking charge, the notional starting point based on quantity alone will be one of 8 years’ imprisonment. In the present case, multiple drugs were involved, and in addition, the defendant also has numerous criminal convictions, in particular, drug trafficking records. As such, an additional 1 year will be added.
The defendant will be given the usual one-third discount for his plea. This will reduce the sentence in relation to Count 2 to one of 6 years’ imprisonment.
The defendant, of course, was not acting simply as a courier at the time, he was effectively running a drug cafeteria. However, this aggravating feature of the case has been reflected and absorbed into the sentence imposed on Count 1.
In view of that, the two sentences will be ordered to run consecutively to each other.
In conclusion for the two offences that the defendant stands convicted, he is therefore sentenced to a total of 7 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.
