Lawyers for the defendants, all from Sydney, asked the judge to give their clients light sentences because they were naive, vulnerable young people recruited by a crime syndicate promising quick money and a vacation to Hong Kong.

Deputy High Court Judge Kim Longley sentenced the youngest defendant, Chris Ha Vo, a 16-year-old fast-food worker, to nine years in prison. The other teenage defendant, hairdresser Rachel Ann Diaz, 18, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months.

The third defendant, unemployed Hutchinson Tran, 23, got 13 years, four months in prison.

The trio stood emotionless as the sentences were read.

Longley said Tran was an adult when he committed his crimes and played a more active role than Vo and Diaz, supplying them with the drugs and condoms and arranging hotel accommodations for the two.

The trio were arrested on April 12, 2005, in a hotel room with 701 grams of heroin stuffed in condoms, prosecutors said. They planned to swallow the condoms and act as "drug mules" smuggling the narcotics to Sydney, prosecutors said.

The heroin had a street value of HK$325,000 (US$40,000).

The trio pleaded innocent in August to charges of trafficking in a dangerous drug. But in December, Tran and Vo changed their pleas to guilty. Diaz later also pleaded guilty.

Announcing the sentences, Longley also said Vo cooperated with police and that Diaz had a history of abuse that triggered behavioral problems.

Defense lawyers said their clients suffered hardships that made them vulnerable to crime syndicates that recruited them.

"These young people, your honor, are the victims of a syndicate," Diaz's lawyer, Peter Callaghan, said.

John McNamara, Vo's lawyer said his recruiters offered the teenager US$4,285 and spending money to swallow 30 condoms filled with heroin in Hong Kong and return to Australia.

Lok Man-fai, a narcotics officer with the Hong Kong police, said Australian authorities arrested two suspects in connection with the case but that they have yet to face trial.