CRIMINAL CASE NO. 143 OF 2010
COURT: On 14 December 2009, Customs officers carried out a controlled delivery of a DHL parcel by pretending to be DHL couriers. The parcel contained the drugs identified in Count 1, namely 475.94 grammes of cocaine, and it was addressed to someone by the name of Paul Chris. It had been sent from Brazil via the United States of America to a room at a guesthouse in Yuen Long.
When the officers arrived at that guesthouse, the defendant identified himself as Paul Chris by showing them a photocopy of the front page of a passport with that name. He was then handed the parcel, and when he had acknowledged receipt of it, he was promptly arrested.
The DHL package contained tools, including 15 rakes and shovels with handles, and these were found to contain 572.01 grammes of powder containing 475.94 grammes of cocaine.
The officers then noticed a second parcel at the reception which was similarly addressed to Paul Chris. It had been delivered by Hong Kong Speedpost some 10 minutes earlier, and again the defendant admitted that it belonged to him.
This package contained two paper baskets made of drinking straws which concealed packets of powder. The weight of the powder was 533.45 grammes, which contained 476.29 grammes of cocaine. On this parcel there was a telephone number which related to a SIM card number in one of the defendant’s two mobile telephones.
The defendant then gave an account to the Customs officers in which he said that he had met someone called Paul Chris who had given him a passport with that name and asked him to receive a parcel. The defendant said that his own name was Eze John Mike, the name in which he has been charged. In fact, the defendant came into Hong Kong travelling on a Nigerian passport which showed that he was 35 years old. He landed in Hong Kong on 14 April 2008 on a visitor’s visa valid for 21 days. Someone used the defendant’s passport 13 days later to fly out of Hong Kong, but it was certainly not the defendant, who has remained in Hong Kong ever since his arrival.
The guesthouse records where the defendant was arrested showed that the defendant had only rented a room there for four hours. It seems, therefore, that it had been possible to monitor very closely the movements of the two packages before they arrived at his guesthouse.
The value of the cocaine was $902,055.36, or, put another way, $816 per gramme of powder. A very large amount of money was involved in the undertaking by this syndicate of drug traffickers. It was plainly an international smuggling operation as Mr Polson, in his realistic address, has accepted. It was plainly designed, also, to overcome the problems which are sometimes encountered by drug couriers who travel by air with their valuable cargo of illicit drugs.
There is really no mitigation other than the defendant’s guilty pleas to these counts, and this factor will be fully reflected in sentence.
The two quantities of cocaine received by the defendant on the same day are properly given separate counts on the indictment. If they had appeared in one count, the total weight of cocaine would have been 952.23 grammes. The mixture, with the powder included, came to almost exactly a kilogramme.
The combined weight of 952.23 grammes, following the guidelines in HKSAR v Abdallah [2009] 2 HKLRD 437 at 453, falls into the band of 600 to 1200 grammes, calling for a sentence of 20 to 23 years’ imprisonment.
On that basis, in my judgment, this case calls for a starting point of 21½ years’ imprisonment with a further enhancement for the international element of 18 months, making 23 years in all.
On this basis, giving a one-third reduction for the plea, the sentence would be reduced to 15 years and 4 months' imprisonment. However, as the counts properly reflect each separate package, a sentence appropriate to each count needs to be passed so that the total achieved will be the same as if they had been included in one count.
Under the sentencing guidelines for heroin and cocaine, by reference to R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 37, the sentencing band for 400 to 600 grammes is 15 to 20 years.
Accordingly, on Counts 1 and 2, I shall, before enhancement, take in each case a starting point of 17 years' imprisonment, and reduce this to 11 years and 4 months on each count for the pleas of guilty.
But there must also be enhancement for the international element, which in this case I shall take as 8 months, making 12 years on each count in all.
Accordingly, on each count there will be a sentence of 12 years' imprisonment, and I shall order that 3 years and 4 months of the sentence on Count 2 shall run consecutively to the sentence on Count 1, making 15 years and 4 months in all.