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Japanese tour guide gets 25 years for smuggling Ice

Woman was caught at airport with 4kg of the drug disguised as a gift of sweets

A Japanese tour guide who tried to smuggle more than 4kg of the drug Ice out of Hong Kong - disguised as gift-wrapped candy - was jailed for 25 years yesterday. The judge described her fate as a warning to other potential drug couriers.

In passing the sentence, Mr Recorder Wong Ching-yue said he was certain the very severe sentence would be a tremendous shock to Kai Toyoko, 44, and that it would be reported in Japanese newspapers.

'Be that as it may, such severe treatment is obviously necessary for the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs,' he said, sitting in the Court of First Instance.

'It must be made clear to all and sundry worldwide that [Hong Kong] ... views trafficking in dangerous drugs as an extremely dangerous offence and, once convicted, there is little mitigation available.'

Toyoko showed no emotion from the dock after sentence was passed. She had denied two counts of trafficking 4.81kg of Ice, but a Court of First Instance jury found her guilty.

The court heard the Court of Appeal had set a sentencing tariff of 18 years for a maximum of 600 grams of the drug. In this instance, Mr Recorder Wong said, the drugs seized by customs at Chek Lap Kok airport on July 4 last year were eight times that amount.

He also described the attempt to smuggle the drugs into Japan, as gift-wrapped confectionery, as a 'well-planned scheme'. Toyoko's explanation that she did not know what she was carrying was dismissed by Mr Recorder Wong as 'quite ridiculous'.

'A person like you ... a tourist guide ... could not have been so ignorant,' he said, adding 'it defies common sense'.

Mr Recorder Wong acknowledged Toyoko was a courier, and might not have been the owner of the drugs. 'Nevertheless, I am concerned with the trafficking and not whether you own them,' he said.

Toyoko received 25 years for each count of trafficking and was ordered to serve the sentences concurrently.

Before passing sentence, Mr Recorder Wong was told Toyoko had attempted to hang herself with prison-issued bed sheets in September last year.

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