CRIMINAL CASE NO. 397 OF 2010
COURT: The defendant has pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug; the 1st count, namely 59.9 grammes of a solid containing 35.78 grammes of cocaine, and the 2nd count, namely 213.96 grammes of a solid containing 127.37 grammes of cocaine.
The Admitted Facts show that the defendant is a visitor in Hong Kong on a Ghanaian passport. He had arrived in Hong Kong in August 2006 and had rented premises in Chatham Road, Kowloon.
On 4 October 2008 at about 8.53 pm, the defendant was seen leaving those premises with a female person. Subsequently, after the defendant, with the female, had gone out to the street, they were intercepted.
The defendant was brought back for a search, and as a result of the search, keys to the premises were found on him, a black wallet containing cash of HK$21,200 and US$20 cash, and two mobile phones were found in the defendant’s pockets.
The defendant was also found to be wearing two pairs of underpants, and underneath the inner pair of underpants were the cocaine which is the subject matter of the 1st count in two transparent resealable plastic bags.
The defendant was then arrested, and with the keys found on him, the search warrant was executed. Inside the premises were found an electronic scale, 29 transparent resealable plastic bags, amongst other things, and also in a room was found a black bag, and inside the black bag was found a number of resealable plastic bags containing from 0.62 grammes of cocaine in one up to 99.43 grammes of cocaine in the other. There were a total of some five separate resealable plastic bags of cocaine found in that bag.
The defendant was arrested, and these drugs form the quantity in Count 2.
Subsequently, all these drugs were sent for Government Laboratory examination, and the total quantity therefore of the drugs found in the two counts came to 273.86 grammes of a solid or powder containing a total of 163.15 grammes of cocaine.
The street value of these drugs in October 2008 was in the region of HK$219,088.
The defendant is aged 26 and has a clear record in Hong Kong. I am told by Mr Wong that he was a professional footballer. His family is not in Hong Kong, and a large part of the family resides in Germany.
Trafficking in cocaine is a very serious matter, and in this case not only were drugs found in separate packages, an electronic scale was found and 29 transparent resealable plastic bags were also found in the room. Obviously these bags found in the black bag were in different quantities, and so it is quite clear that the defendant was actually dealing with these drugs, packaging them and weighing them.
Hong Kong is, unfortunately, a place which attracts many people in the hope of earning easy money, and the courts are coming down very seriously on people who traffick in dangerous drugs in Hong Kong.
As Mr Wong correctly pointed out, the Court of Appeal, in recognising the major crisis problem we have in Hong Kong in drug trafficking, has laid down guidelines. For trafficking in cocaine, the Court of Appeal has said that we should follow the guidelines laid down in Lau Tak Ming for heroin, and this was said in The Attorney-General v Rojas [1994] 1 HKC 342.
According to the guidelines, for trafficking in between 50 grammes to 200 grammes of cocaine, it would merit a sentence of 8 to 12 years.
In this case, the total amount of drugs of the two counts is 163.15 grammes, which calls for a starting point sentence of 11 years.
The defendant has pleaded guilty. He is entitled to the one‑third discount, thus bringing the sentence down to 7 years and 4 months.
This is supposed to be a retrial, and the defendant has therefore been in custody since 2008, and no doubt that will be taken into account by the Correctional Services Department.
As far as the sentence is concerned, the only mitigating factor is the defendant’s plea and also his clear record, and therefore the one-third discount is appropriate.
The defendant is sentenced to 7 years and 4 months. I will sentence the defendant in the following way.
In the 1st count, the starting point will be 6 years, reduced to 4 years because of his plea.
The 2nd count will be 11 years, reduced to 7 years 4 months because of his plea, both sentences to be served concurrently, thus giving a total of 7 years 4 months’ imprisonment.