A MOTHER in debt to the Chinese mafia was so terrified of their threats to kill her children she agreed to smuggle $7 million worth of heroin into Cairns.

But Jo Ee Tan, 40, who risked life in prison after pleading guilty in Cairns Supreme Court yesterday to importing drugs, will be eligible for parole in less than five years.

Tan was caught with almost 4kg of heroin with a purity of up to 63 per cent at Cairns airport on August 17 last year, after arriving on a visitor’s visa on a Cathay Pacific flight from Penang via Hong Kong.

Customs X-rayed her suitcases, which were heavier than expected, and found bags of heroin stashed underneath false bases.

Tan's lawyer Philip Bovey said Tan was accompanied by her two youngest children, then aged 12 and 14, plus a man and a woman sent by Malaysian-based Chinese "gangsters" to "mind" her. Also travelling was her sister-in-law, so worried about Tan's financial troubles she feared she might sell her children.

Mr Bovey said the minders sat on either side of Tan in the plane and had arranged to each share a room with one of the children once in Australia to ensure her compliance.

But when they arrived in Cairns and the plans "went south" they vanished, he said.

Mr Bovey said Tan got involved with the "gangsters" after borrowing $20,000 to try to salvage her struggling herbal business in Penang from someone she thought was a friend but who was actually working for the organised crime group.

Her loan was increased to $60,000 when she failed to make the repayment on time and then threats were made against her family, he said.

"She was told if she didn't make the trip then her family would suffer and may be hurt or killed and she was aware that such retribution is not unusual in the Chinese community in Malaysia," Mr Bovey said.

"She did not tell police this story at first because she was worried and is still worried about what repercussions might flow to her family in Malaysia."

Mr Bovey said Tan was basically "in isolation" at Townsville prison because of her limited English and was unable to receive full treatment for the chronic inflammatory disease lupus with which she had been recently diagnosed with.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Guilfoyle, who had been seeking a 15-year jail term with nine years to serve, said illicit organisations prospered because people like Tan were willing to act as couriers.

Mr Guilfoyle said there should be no discount as she had refused to provide any details of either her suppliers or the customers she was to deliver the drugs to.

Justice Stanley Jones said he took into account Tan’s desperate plight and the unlikelihood of any rehabilitation in prison in Australia because of the language barrier.

He said he understood her motives, with her children brought to Australia with her "as virtual hostages".

"But I have to punish you because of the danger you and people like you pose to the society of Australia and the law requires that I send you to jail for a very long time," he said.

He said he would set the term at 12 years, but would also order the earliest parole release date he could of just six years, taking into account the more than 15 months she has already spent in custody.

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