A 33-year-old Filipina was fined and given suspended jail terms at Eastern Magistrates Court on Monday after pleading guilty to four offenses, including possession of the drug “ice”.
Defendant Cheryll Salvador, who worked for a sportswear company in Manila, was arrested at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island on November 23 last year when she resisted and injured a customs officer who wanted to inspect her bag, sunwehhk.com reported.
Salvador was stopped by an officer who wanted to inspect her bag, which prompted her to start searching in the bag, saying she needed a candy – instead of handing her bag to the officer.
The female officer, who suspected that there was contraband in the defendant’s handbag, tried to take the bag but Salvador resisted and injured the officer’s left hand. The officer had to be sent to hospital for treatment.
When Customs officers searched her bag, they found a plastic bag, a glass beaker containing the drug, four foil packs containing five tablets of zopiclone, a regulated drug listed as a Part 1 poison in the city. The defendant was arrested.
Salvador’s lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying the defendant was rushing to catch a ferry to Macau as she had to check in an hour later for a flight to Manila.
Salvador was said to be depressed at the time as she had broken up with her boyfriend the night before. She bought the packet of “ice” for HK$100 (US$12.70) outside a bar in Wan Chai to ease her depression.
Magistrate Lam Tsz-kam fined her $2,000 for obstructing the customs officer, and gave her suspended jail terms for possession of 0.32 grams of ice, equipment to inhale narcotics and attempting to export several regulated drugs.