'Cocaine Cassie' admits to being a drug mule years after claiming innocence
Topics: Australia, Drugs, Crime, Documentaries, World News
Daisy Phillipson
Featured Image Credit: 7News Spotlight/@cassie_sainsbury/Instagram
Topics: Australia, Drugs, Crime, Documentaries, World News
A woman who was jailed in Colombia after being caught with 5.8kg cocaine in her luggage has finally admitted to smuggling the drugs after years of claiming to be innocent.
Cassie Sainsbury, or 'Cocaine Cassie' as she's been nicknamed in the media, had been boarding a flight from Bogotá to London in 2017 when an airport x-ray detected the stash hidden in 18 boxes of headphones.
The 27-year-old Australia native was sentenced to six years at the notorious El Buen Pastor women's prison, but was released early and made it out in April 2020.
Up until now, Cassie has claimed to be innocent this whole time, giving a number of high profile interviews while in prison and on bail in South America.
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However, this has all changed with the release of a promo for an upcoming 7News Spotlight episode titled Cocaine Cassie: The Confession.
In the short clip, the interviewer says to Cassie, "You knew you were being asked to deliver cocaine, finally you've admitted it."
The former fitness trainer replies, "I knew what was in it," late adding, "I feared for my life."
The exclusive interview is also set to uncover more about a 'worldwide syndicate' she became involved in that 'delivered drugs in Aussie suburbs'.
Cocaine Cassie: The Confession is set to air on Australia's Channel 7 this Sunday, September 4, at 8:40pm.
Cassie changed her story several times when interviewed in the past, having initially claimed to have been transporting documents rather than drugs.
She later said that she had proof of her innocence but that it was locked away on a phone that she couldn't remember the pin number for.
Later, Cassie suggested she had been coerced into being a drug mule and that her family's lives had been threatened.
In a 2017 interview with 60 Minutes Australia, she said: "It was a point where I was just about to accept a job but I had outstanding bills. I suppose I took the risk.
"Now I'm here. But it's a lesson learned - definitely."
After spending time behind bars, Cassie was made to stay in Colombia as part of her bail terms.
However, now she is able to speak the truth, having finally landed back in Australia for the first time since the whole saga last month.
But it most likely won't be the last time she enters the country, as she told Daily Mail Australia that she had recently married her girlfriend, who is Colombian.
She said: "We'll probably end up between Australia and Colombia because obviously her family is here so it will be like, some time here, some time there type of thing."
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