Ex-FDH gets five years for ‘shabu’ trafficking

Shabu is called "ice" in HK

A 45-year-old former domestic worker was sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in Wan Chai.

High Court Judge Esther Toh sent defendant A. Gonzales to prison after she admitted to trafficking at least 25 grams of shabu. The police also confiscated from her tablets and three bottles that contained traces of other illegal drugs.

“The starting point is seven and a half years. Taking into account the guilty plea of the defendant, the sentence is reduced to five years imprisonment,” Judge Toh said last month.

“She does not know what’s going to happen (to her). This is going to be hanging over her like a black cloud while she is (in jail) in the next few years,” the lawyer told Judge Toh on December 6.

Gonzales was arrested on June 25, 2015 after the police received a tip that there was a Filipina involved in drug trafficking in a building in Wan Chai.

At around 10:05 a.m. that day, investigators at the North Point police station decided to conduct a surveillance operation.

Four hours later, Gonzales came out of the flat that the police were watching. She was carrying a recycled bag.

The police intercepted her and, when they checked the recycled bag, they found a re-sealable plastic bag with 25.7 grams of shabu and several tablets of another illegal drug.

They also found three bottles of a liquid that contained traces of methamphetamine inside the flat. The drugs confiscated from her had a street value of $10,688, Judge Toh said.

Gonzales said a Chinese man gave the illegal drugs to her and she was going to meet him again in Causeway Bay.

At first, the Filipina denied that she used illegal drugs but she later admitted to being a drug addict.

Gonzales first arrived in Hong Kong in 1991 to work as a domestic helper bu, after her last contract ended in 2001, she did not go home to the Philippines and overstayed here.

In 2007, she had an American boyfriend who was a drug user. He was the one who “encouraged her to take drugs,” her lawyer said.

The lawyer also said that, when Gonzales became hooked on drugs in 2008, she stopped sending money to her son and daughter back in the Philippines.

However, her daughter, now 23, was present during the court hearing to show her support for her mother.

“There has been reconciliation and a period of forgiveness. It almost makes her feel worse because she stopped supporting her son and daughter,” Gonzales’ lawyer told the judge.

“She will have to work very hard after letting them down,” he added.