A porn model has admitted trying to smuggle cocaine worth more than £18 million on a cruise ship from Britain to Australia.
Canadian Isabelle Lagacé, 28, was
arrested with two other suspects — a man and a woman — after the liner Sea Princess docked at Sydney harbour in August.
Federal Police said the drug bust was Australia’s biggest-ever through passenger transportation.
Solicitor Louis Ialenti, acting for Lagace, entered the guilty plea at Sydney central local court.
The 95kg drugs haul, which had an Australian street value estimated to be at least $31million, was found in four suitcases — one of which, it is alleged, was in the two women’s shared cabin.
Lagace, from Quebec, sat stone-faced and dressed in maroon in the court beside her co-accused Melina Romberce, 23, and Andre Tamine, 64.
Romberce was dressed in white and Tamine wore green prison clothing.
Lagace was committed for sentencing at Sydney district court on February 3.
Tamine did not enter a plea and he will stand trial on that date in NSW district court. No plea was entered by Romberce and a decision on her trial will be made by the central local court on December 21.
Before their arrests the women had detailed their travels on the £11,000-per-person trip, which started in Southampton, through images shared on social media.
Images posted on Instagram and Facebook showed them visiting New York, Bermuda, Ecuador, Tahiti, Colombia, Peru and New Zealand.
Romberce, a Quebec jewellery store worker, shared pictures of them riding quad bikes, hiking in Peru and posing in bikinis.
The maximum penalty for smuggling a commercial quantity of cocaine is life imprisonment.
No comments:
Post a Comment