Underwear ice trafficker jailed in Tas

A drug trafficker who tried to smuggle half a million dollars worth of ice into Tasmania by hiding it in his underwear will spend up to four years behind bars.

Jean Michel Christophe Wimmer, 33, was detected in May by a sniffer dog at Hobart Airport after arriving on a flight from Sydney with a hidden package containing 508 grams of the drug.

He was sentenced in Hobart Supreme Court on Thursday to four years in jail with a non-parole period of two years.

Justice Alan Blow said Wimmer was carrying a "large commercial quantity" of the drug with a street value of $508,000.

Wimmer, who was acting as a courier for a bigger operation, had earlier pleaded guilty to trafficking and importing a controlled substance.

The bust was at the time hailed by Tasmania police as one of the largest in the state's history.

Mr Blow noted the drug had a "very high level" of purity of more than 74 per cent.

Wimmer, from Yagoona in southwest Sydney, had a long-running drug problem but was undergoing rehabilitation in prison, Mr Blow noted.