COURT: Defendant, you appear in this court having pleaded guilty in the court below to an offence of trafficking in 459.90 grammes of heroin hydrochloride and 77.93 grammes of 6-monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 134, Laws of Hong Kong.
The Summary of Facts, which you have confirmed, establish that you arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on a flight from Tanzania via Ethiopia on 9 May of this year. You were intercepted at the airport and later on taken to hospital where it was found that foreign objects were contained inside your body cavity.
Subsequently, you excreted a total of 55 packets which contained the drugs being the subject matter of the charge. The retail value of these drugs, I am told, amounts to some HK$557,000.
You are a Tanzanian national, now 30 years of age, married and have two young children back home in Dar Es Salaam. I am told the reasons that you committed this offence are, quite simply, financial. You did this for a reward, hoping to better the lives of yourself and your poor family back home in Tanzania.
In sentencing you, I do take account of all that has been said on your behalf by your counsel but, really, the only real mitigation here is your plea of guilty to this serious charge and I will afford you the full discount in sentence to reflect this plea of guilty.
The guidelines regarding sentence can be found in the case of Regina v Lau Tak Ming [1992] HKLR at 370, and for trafficking in 400 to 600 grammes of heroin, the sentencing range falls between 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment, after trial.
In this case, the court is dealing with just over 537 grammes of narcotic, quite close to the top limit. Accordingly, I take as my starting point a sentence of 18½ years’ imprisonment. I will enhance this sentence by 6 months’ imprisonment to take account of the aggravating feature that exists by you bringing these drugs into Hong Kong, thereby establishing an international element, coming to 19 years’ imprisonment.
I will discount this sentence by one-third to take account of your plea of guilty, arriving at a sentence of 12 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.