CRIMINAL CASE NO. 120 OF 2011
COURT: The defendant pleads guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134.
He was intercepted by police officers at the rear staircase holding a brown paper box. Eight bags of drugs, later found to be ketamine, were inside that box. He admitted that he was keeping an eye on the “K chai” for someone for a reward of $500 and also some ketamine for his own consumption.
The market value of the drugs at that time was in the region of $25,000.
Upon analysis, the mixture was found to be a total of 203.69 grammes of a powder containing 173.15 grammes of ketamine.
The defendant is now aged 18, which means that when he committed the present offence he was not yet 18. I was told that he had barely completed Form 3 when he first came into conflict with the law when he was sentenced to a rehabilitation centre. Afterwards he had been on part‑time employment. He has four previous convictions, the last one being one of possession of dangerous drugs, for which he was sentenced to DATC in July this year.
The present offence was committed whilst he was on bail for that offence. Counsel told me that he committed the present offence due to his misguided loyalty to his friends and also to feed his own addiction.
In sentencing the defendant I have taken into account the nature of the offence, the drugs involved, its quantity and the sentencing tariff. I have also taken into account his plea and mitigation forwarded by counsel on his behalf. I have perused the letters written by the defendant himself, his sister, his father and his grandmother.
For trafficking in ketamine weighing between 50 to 300 grammes, the Court of Appeal has laid down a tariff of 6 to 9 years. For the present amount of narcotics I adopt a starting point of 7 years’ imprisonment. I shall give him the full one-third discount for his guilty plea.
He is sentenced to 56 months’ imprisonment.