Drug Importation in UK Law

As it seems to us, generally speaking, those responsible for organising the importation of Class A drugs into this country will attract somewhat higher sentences than those responsible, as Whiteway was, for organising distribution in this country.

Our conclusion is that the judge's starting point of 20 years for Whiteway, had there been a trial, was at the bottom of the appropriate bracket for a major organiser of wholesale distribution in this country, leaving in mind he was not the top man in relation to the dissemination of these drugs.

Then I turn to the importation of Heroin, Morphine and so on: Large scale importation, that is where the street value of the consignment is in the order of £100,000 or more, sentences of seven years and upwards are appropriate. There will be cases where the values are of the order of £1 million or more, in which case the offence should be visited by sentences of twelve to fourteen years. It will seldom be that an importer of any appreciable amount of the drug will deserve less than four years.

Next, supplying heroin, morphine, etc.: It goes without saying that the sentence will largely depend on the degree of involvement, the amount of trafficking and the value of the drug being handled. It is seldom that a sentence of less than three years will be justified and the nearer the source of supply the defendant is shown to be, the heavier will be the sentence. There may well be cases where sentences similar to those appropriate to large scale importers may be necessary.

20 years is clearly justified on the authorities for an important, but secondary, participation in large scale importation of class A drugs. In between those two points have to be fitted quite a large number of disparate people who clearly are more involved than those who might receive 20 years, but less involved than those who might not receive 30 years. We seem to have a crowding of this kind in the present case.

If it is, as in my opinion it is, a continuing offence then the courts of England, in my view, have jurisdoction to try the offence if, and only if, the evidence suffices to show that the conspiracy whenever or wherever it was formed was in existence when the accused were in England.