A KARAOKE lounge owner who tried to smuggle 180 grams of heroin to Taiwan, allegedly for his future father-in-law, was yesterday sentenced to six years' jail by the High Court.
Tsai Shen-jun, 25, admitted he got the drugs from someone in China and had it strapped to his calves before flying to Hongkong, but said he was told it was marijuana and he would only be given a fine if caught.
He pleaded guilty to trafficking in 204 grams of a mixture containing 181 grams of salts of esters of morphine.
Mr Justice Jerome Chan accepted Tsai had not done any actual harm in Hongkong, since he was only in transit. But Hongkong owed a duty to the international community to fight drug trafficking, he said.
Counsel for the Crown, Andrew Macrae, told the court that Tsai, a transit passenger from Guangzhou, was waiting to board a plane to Taipei on August 17 last year when he was intercepted by customs officers at Kai Tak airport.
A package of heroin mixture was found strapped to the calf of each leg.