An 18-year-old was jailed for 11 years on Tuesday after being caught with 2.6 kilogrammes of ketamine when he was 15.

The drugs, worth more than HK$1.7 million, were found at a flat in Mui Wo in June 2021.

Cheung Chi-hin, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, was paid HK$400 to HK$500 each time he packed up the drugs for a friend, the High Court heard.

In mitigation, the defence said the teenager was driven by an urgent need to make money because his mother had lost her job during the pandemic and his father was unable to work due to injury.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Judianna Barnes acknowledged that Cheung was a minor at the time of the offence, and said this made him susceptible to being influenced by others into engaging in criminal activity.

Barnes also noted that Cheung was not the mastermind of the crime and reduced his prison term to 11 years, from a starting point of 16.5.