Accused drug smugglers used code: court

A woman accused of arranging for elderly indebted gamblers to be drug mules used the codeword "children" to refer to kilograms of smuggled goods, a court has heard.

Het Thi Ho, 39, has pleaded not guilty to two charges relating to the conspiracy to supply more than 4kg of key ingredients in the manufacture of the drug ice, stemming from an August 2013 bust.

In his opening address at Sydney's District Court, crown prosecutor Paul Leask said Ho arranged for Robin Xiao to smuggle 4035.48 grams of pseudoephedrine and 263.1 grams of ephedrine on a trip from China and Vietnam to Sydney.

Ho, it's alleged, is two rungs below the alleged syndicate head and recommended to her superior that Xiao be used as a drug courier.

In an intercepted call made about two weeks before Xiao was busted at Sydney airport, Ho allegedly told the gang's second-in-command: "there's an old man, 63 years of age who wants to look after the children, do you want to?"

The code "look after the children" refers to the importation of drugs from overseas, Mr Leask told the jury.

The next day, Ho allegedly called the group's leader, Pho Nhi Huynh, and said she chatted about the quantity of chemicals to be imported with Xiao, Mr Leask said.

In this call the reference to children was again a veiled discussion about volumes, the court heard.

"The reference to four, five and 10 kids is a drug code for kilograms of prohibited drugs," Mr Leask said.

"In this call Ho indicates to Huynh that she told Xiao that he would be carrying about four to five kilograms of the drugs."

The syndicate for which Ho allegedly worked approached gamblers with significant debts, the court heard.

Much of the prosecution case rests on intercepted phone calls and several police are expected to be called as witnesses when the trial resumes on Monday.