Isabelle Lagace posted this photo on Instagram four weeks before her arrest. She said it was taken in Ecuador. She also posted pictures of Tahiti and a cruise ship.
Isabelle Lagace, a Canadian woman who worked as a porn model, was accused of helping smuggle $30 million in cocaine aboard a Princess cruise ship while chronicling the luxurious globe-trotting vacation in seductive Instagram photos.
You can see a gallery of their photos here.
Lagace, 28, and another Canadian woman, Melina Roberge, 22, were arrested in what police said was “the largest seizure in Australia of narcotics carried by passengers of a cruise ship or airliner,” according to CBC. Some sites give Melina’s name as Melina Roberce. (You can see more of the women’s photos here.) On April 18, 2018, Roberge sobbed as she was sentenced to eight years in prison.
A third person arrested was identified by police as Andre Tamine, 63. In a news release, the Australian Border Force alleged the three were running cocaine for an “international drug syndicate.” Tamine is also from Canada. All three were passengers on the cruise ship.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Three Canadians Boarded the Cruise Ship in a British Port City & Lagace Was Sentenced to Prison for the Crime
Isabelle Lagace. In most of the photos the women posted on Instagram, they appear carefree and happy. Many of the photos were selfies. They show the women on the cruise ship. (Instagram/Isabelle Lagace)
Lagace was the first of the trio to plead guilty. She “pleaded guilty last year to assisting in the smuggling operation, saying she had done it to pay off debts. She was sentenced to seven years in prison but could be eligible for parole in 2021,” reported Newsweek. Roberge has pleaded guilty now too although she has yet to be sentenced.
According to CBC, authorities suspected that the three “had boarded the ship at the British port city of Southampton” and police are investigating whether they boarded with the drugs or got then in South American ports the ship visited.
The cruise ship visited Canada, the USA, Peru and New Zealand before arriving in Australia, said UK Telegraph.
“Eat, beach, sleep, repeat,” Isabelle Lagace wrote on this Instagram photo. She wrote that it was taken in Cuba. One commenter wrote, “eat, sleep, yard time, repeat, #prison.” (Instagram/Isabelle Lagace)
Melina’s Facebook page says she is a manager at a Pandora Store in downtown Montreal. She filled her Facebook page with vacation photos, as well as photos of high heeled shoes, alcohol, an expensive watch, family dinners, and nights on the town. Many of her comments are written in French. Roberge also said on Facebook that she was single. In 2013, she wrote, “Life is a gift, if you get a chance take it, if it changes your life then let it .. Because if you never get lost then you’ll never get found.”
La Presse quoted a family friend of Roberge as saying, “The family is devastated.” The newspaper said Roberge had worked at a jewelry store.
Neither Lagace nor Tamine are on her list of more than 1,000 Facebook friends.
2. Lagace Has Worked as a Porn Star & The Drugs Were Found Inside Luggage in the Passengers’ Cabins, Reports Say
Isabelle Lagace posted this bikini photo on Instagram. In some of the women’s photos, they appear in bikinis. The drugs were allegedly confiscated on a Princess Cruise ship, said the Border Force. (Instagram/Isabelle Lagace)
Lagace has made a living in the past as “a former porn star and model,” reported The Sun. According to UK Daily Mail, “One of the detained women, Isabelle Lagacé, has a secret past as a full frontal porn model.”
According to the Border Force press release, “On Sunday 28 August, ABF officers boarded the vessel when it berthed in Sydney Harbour, and with the assistance of detector dogs, searched a number of passenger cabins on the ship. During this search, approximately 95 kilograms of cocaine was located, packed in suitcases.”
The Toronto Star says authorities weren’t there by accident but “an exchange of information among…the Canadian Border Service Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security led them to focus on this specific ship.” The Australian Border Force press release says authorities only searched a number of the ship’s compartments.
New York Magazine says the women were traveling on the “luxury” cruise ship MS Sea Princess for two months. The magazine says all three people arrested were from Quebec.
3. Lagace Posted Many Photos of the Luxury Trip on Instagram, Including Wearing a Bikini
Isabelle Lagace posted this photo on Instagram five weeks before she was arrested for allegedly trying to help smuggle millions of dollars of cocaine into Australia on a cruise ship. She captioned it as being in Cartagena, Colombia. The Australian Border Force says the drugs were allegedly tied to an unnamed crime syndicate. (Instagram/Isabelle Lagace)
Lagace posted photos from the vacation. Her pictures show her in exotic locales around the world, including Cuba, Ecuador, New York City and Colombia. She said in one that it was a “world cruise.” On another photo, she wrote, “Eat, beach, sleep, repeat” to which a commenter has now responded, “eat, beach, yard time, repeat, #prison.”
Roberge’s Instagram page says: “Currently traveling.” The women’s Instagram pages show them in exotic locales, wearing bikinis, sipping from a coconut, in cocktail dresses, riding on an ATV, and enjoying tropical destinations.
Six days before the arrest, Roberge posted a self-described “jungle selfie.” They also took photographs of themselves in Times Square on the jaunt around the globe.
Far from staying low profile, both women flaunted the trip on social media
https://www.instagram.com/p/BInYDvZg4LV/?taken-by=belliszaa
On another photo, Roberge wrote, “coconut water detox.” She also recently posted photos in Peru. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, “The holiday photos look like two young women on a dream trip cruising around the world, not two alleged drug mules working for an international drug syndicate.”
4. Lagace Expressed Regret in Court for Her Role in the Smuggling
Isabelle Lagace and Melina Roberge. They didn’t appear together in many of their photos. However, they did appear together in this one. They are now both facing life prison terms, an Australian Border Force press release says. (Instagram)
When it came time to address the court, Isabelle Lagace expressed regret for her role as a drug mule. She called it a “dirty, filthy trade,” according to Nine.com.au. “Lagace claims she’d previously borrowed $20,000 from unnamed people and began to receive threats before she was given an ultimatum,” the television station reported.
Lagace called it an “error in judgment” to the court and said, “It pains me to know that my defining years of womanhood will be spent in prison halfway around the world,” according to the television station. She will likely be released in 2021 because of time serviced, according to Nine.com.
Roberge, Lagace, and the older man are facing life imprisonment, according to the press release from the Australia Border Force.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, all three were charged with allegedly trying to import drugs into Australia.
The Australian Border Force posted this photo of some of the drugs on Facebook:
The drugs allegedly recovered in the search. (Australian Border Force)
“With 95 kilograms of cocaine stuffed into their suitcases, these three Canadian nationals did not have much room for clean underwear or spare toothbrushes,” the Australian Border Force alleged on Facebook. “Following an international joint operation targeting drug smuggling syndicates, our detector dogs boarded a cruise ship in Sydney and sniffed out the narcotics. The huge haul represents a record for drugs seized off a cruise vessel coming into Australia.”
The Border Force says the investigation is ongoing and other arrests could occur.
5. Lagace Worked at a Cafe in Quebec & Police Allege the Women Were Working For a Crime Syndicate
Many of Isabelle Lagace’s photos show her on beaches. However, some also appear to show the inside of the cruise ship or show her in cocktail dresses. Authorities allege the cocaine was stored in luggage, said the Border Force press release. (Instagram/Isabelle Lagace)
The UK Telegraph said Lagace “is understood to have worked at the Bureau de Poste café in Quebec.”
The Australian Border Force wrote, “ABF Assistant Commissioner, Strategic Border Command, Clive Murray said that this was yet another example of international cooperation leading to significant results in the fight against international drug syndicates.”
The Force quoted Murray as saying: “These syndicates should be on notice that the Australian Border Force is aware of all of the different ways they attempt to smuggle drugs into our country and we are working with a range of international agencies to stop them.”
The press release said the three were scheduled to appear in court on August 29 for allegedly importing a commercial quantity of cocaine.
The trip cost more than $14,000, said UK Telegraph. That’s £11,000.