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. Under caution, Tsai admitted someone in Taiwan had paid for him to go to China to bring drugs back. He said he was promised NT$30,000 to NT$40,000 (about HK$8,600 to HK$11,500) if he succeeded. He claimed he was given the packages at Guangzhou airport when he arrived there on August 13 but he did not know what kind of drug he was carrying. His counsel, Edward Laskey, said his client had intended to go to China to buy television sets but was persuaded by his fiancee's father to carry drugs. He was told he had marijuana and even if caught, he would only be given a fine. Because there were no direct flights between China and Taiwan, it was simply a neccessity to go through Hongkong, said Mr Laskey.