Evelyn George, 57, told a court in Australian that she agreed to act as a drug courier because she needed money for medical bills and to return to Scotland to renew her Indian visa, The Daily Record of Glasgow reported.

George, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, was arrested in April when customs officials in Perth found the heroin in a false-bottomed suitcase.

Judge Robert Mazza told George that her sentence, which would allow her to be released after six years, would serve as a deterrent to others considering making drug runs.

"You agreed to take a very large quantity of very harmful drugs into Australia for profit," he told her.

The heroin had a street value of close to $3 million, investigators said.

George, who had no record of drug trafficking or use, had been living in Goa, India, for several years. Her daughter, Penny Stracey, who lives in Scotland, told the Record she has not spoken to her mother for years and had not known of her legal problems.