A Jamaican nurse has been jailed for 14 years after pleading guilty to importing nearly $2 million worth of heroin in her underpants.

However mother of three Teartia Laverna Smith, 38, could find her sentence slashed in half on appeal if she carries out a promise to testify against the two men who planned the deal.

Smith arriving from New York on March 24 last year and was interviewed by customs at Bermuda airport after claiming to have lost her bag.

She told them she was here to visit a cousin but soon admitted she did not have a cousin here and a search revealed the drugs hidden in her pants.

Police found more than 339 grammes of heroin with a street value of more than $1,833,840.

At the sentencing yesterday Prosecutor Vinette Graham-Allen said the court should bear in mind that although the defendant had indicated she would be a witness when two dealers she had named were brought to trial, that promise had yet to materialise.

Defence lawyer Larry Scott called for a sentence of between five to eight years after pointing out she had co-operated fully with Police and that she had not benefited from the trade.

However Chief Justice Austin Ward said: "Not for heroin, no, no, no, it's considerably higher than that."

He said Smith had met the dealers while working at a clinic in North Lauderdale, Florida. He said she had lived in America for many years and had a green card, or Permanent Resident visa the final step towards citizenship. Smith said although she had used diamorphine, from which heroin is based, at her work but had not realised the power of the drug until meeting girls suffering withdrawal while on remand.

She told Chief Justice Austin Ward: "It's a really horrible drug. As a nurse I feel guilty, for 15 years I have taken care of the sick, especially the terminally ill patients - AIDS and cancer patients and I have administered diamorphine."

She said claimed she did not know diamorphine had a relationship to heroin or that it was so powerful.

She said: "It's an abomination to earth, it causes so many problems, even death."

Smith claimed she had originally turned down the offer to import the heroin but wanted the money to visit her dying father who had recently had a leg amputated due to gangrene brought on by diabetes.

"He died the third day I was under arrest here," said Smith.

"I took a choice and I have to suffer the consequences of that. I apologise to the court and the people of Bermuda for my actions."

Austin Ward said the maximum sentence for her crime was 20 years but she was entitled to a discount considering her guilty plea, her help to Police and her contrition. He sentenced her to 14 years but, referring to her promise to testify against her two dealers, added: "It may be corrected at a later date."