Uber driver Francisco Javier Trejos, 40, and tiler Jesus Hernandez, 57, exchanged an Aldi shopping bag before Trejos parked 150 metres away.

Hernandez handed over the bag to his buyer and collected $94,500 for what was inside: half a kilogram of cocaine.

However, the buyer was an undercover operative and police had been watching the pair's every move.

Seconds later, officers pounced, blowing their international drug network wide open.

A NSW District Court judgment has revealed that Trejos had been deported to Australia in 2010 after serving at least six years in a US federal prison for his role as a courier in the importation of 60 kilograms of heroin sewn into coat linings, hidden in the soles of shoes and stashed in perfume bottles, lint rollers, cameras and hairbrushes on a cruise ship that sailed into Florida.

However, Interpol records were so "unintelligible" that no one could tell if he was on parole when he resumed business in late 2014, this time in Sydney, Judge Stephen Norrish said.

The dual citizen, who was born in Colombia but raised in Australia, had been contacted by a South American man he had met in prison who could supply cocaine.

Trejos headed a network described as fairly unsophisticated.

"It was as simple as you can have it," Judge Norrish said.

He'd receive cocaine in the post from his South American supplier and give it to Hernandez, whose job was to source a buyer.

Hernandez was described in court as a devoted family man and a hard-working tiler but a "somewhat naive or relatively 'simple' person".

The three times he sold drugs for Trejos, the only buyer he could find was a police operative.

"If Trejos had've known [who the buyers were] he might have warned Mr Hernandez to be a little bit more cautious about his arrangements," Judge Norrish said.

Despite his naivety, Hernandez was "no patsy", he said. Rather, he enthusiastically negotiated matters on Trejos' behalf.

As he sold drugs to one informant in February 2015, he spoke at length about how the pair were going to import two kilograms of cocaine in a coffee machine from Argentina, Peru or Panama.

He met with the informants several times to negotiate prices and sold cocaine three times, twice outside Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink and once outside Canterbury train station, when he was observed handing over a red and white Reject Shop plastic bag in exchange for $112,500.

Hernandez later told police he was trying to raise money for an immigration agent to help his wife and child, who were deported, despite living in Australia since 1997.

He was otherwise a law-abiding father, partly blinded by desperation, the court found.

Trejos also immediately admitted his guilt to police, saying he wanted to "make that extra dollar" to support his family overseas.

His experience in a US prison "had not had any salutary effect on him at all", Judge Norrish found, but he had good rehabilitative prospects, despite a tough upbringing that included his father being murdered in Columbia.

Hernandez received an eight-year jail sentence, with a non-parole period of five years.

Trejos received 11 years, with a non-parole period of seven years. An appeal against the severity of his sentence was dismissed earlier this month.