Woman who concealed 394 ecstasy caps in her body at music festival is 'going to ...

An aspiring nurse who internally concealed 394 ecstasy capsules at a Sydney music festival has broken down in tears after being told she would likely go to jail.

Tina Thanh Truc Phan was originally sentenced to just 80 hours of community service for attempting to smuggle the drugs into the festival late last year.

The New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions decided to appeal against the leniency of that sentence and Phan faced Parramatta District Court on Wednesday.

There the 18-year-old ran into Acting Judge Norman Delaney whose no-nonsense prediction of Phan's fate left her in tears.

'I'm in the process of sentencing 10 people in her situation and they're all going to prison,' Acting Judge Delaney said.

'Every single one of them.'

Phan is just one of a batch of drug dealers, many of them young Asian women, who have been arrested carrying large quantities of ecstasy at music festivals in recent months.

'They all seem to be of the same origin,' Acting Judge Delaney said. 'They all seem to be in the same situation.'

Phan's barrister Greg Jones submitted a suitable penalty would be 12 months' imprisonment to be served in the community under an intensive correction order.

Mr Jones said Phan had already completed her community service and could undergo a drug rehabilitation program.

Phan's sister had written a reference to the court outlining her sibling's 'greater insight' into the seriousness of her conduct since she was first sentenced.

However, Acting Judge Delaney said what he really wanted to read were previous penalties imposed for comparable drug crimes as he prepared to deal with Phan and other similar offenders.

'I've got 10 and they're all going in,' he said.