A former customs officer set to be sentenced over the importation of a key ingredient for the drug ice didn't play a major role in the operation, a court has heard.

Christopher Cranney together with four other men, including former baggage handler David Harb, conspired to import pseudoephedrine from Vietnam, with police seizing about 40 kilograms of the substance - capable of making an estimated $9.5 million worth of ice - from an importation on June 6, 2012.

On Friday, Sydney's District Court heard Cranney directed resources and monitored CCTV to help the baggage handler take suitcases containing pseudoephedrine from planes and off the airport precinct.

But his lawyer Gregory Stanton said his role wasn't as significant as suggested and that others involved in the importation had complained about him getting money for nothing.

He also said there wasn't any evidence Cranney, who worked as a shift supervisor, had altered rosters to facilitate the smuggling.

Cranney's role, Mr Stanton suggested, was passive.

Witnesses couldn't say what Cranney was meant to have done and he was considered greedy by others involved, the court heard.

"He didn't do anything for his money," Mr Stanton said.

Rather, Cranney had "said nothing, done nothing to alert the authorities to what has occurred," he said.

Crown prosecutor Patricia McEniery, however, said he was an active participant in the importation, providing advice and monitoring the airport.

"Mr Cranney was at all times an equal," she said, adding his actions were critical to the operation's success.

Cranney, who's been found guilty of one charge of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a controlled substance and two counts of bribing a commonwealth official, will be sentenced on November 6.