Woman stopped en route to London with £1,000,000 of cocaine in her suitcase
Cassandra Sainsbury was arrested (Picture: EPA/Col Anti-narcotics Police)
An Australian woman faces up to 20 years in jail after 18 packs of cocaine were discovered inside her suitcase.
Bride-to-be Cassandra Sainsbury, 22, was caught with the drugs trying to board a flight from Colombia to London last month.

However, her family claim that she was set up. They say she thought the cocaine packs were pre-wrapped headphones which were going to be handed out as gifts at her upcoming wedding.
If she is found guilty of smuggling drugs, she will face jail time – like Peru Two drug mules Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid who attempted to smuggle 24lb (11kg) of cocaine out of Peru in 2013.
Sainsbury was arrested at Bogota’s international airport after an X-ray machine detected the cocaine hidden in different packages stashed in her luggage.
Woman stopped en route to London with £1,000,000 of cocaine in her suitcase
She faces up to 20 years in jail (Picture: EPA/Col Anti-narcotics Police)
Woman stopped en route to London with £1,000,000 of cocaine in her suitcase
She allegedly though the drugs were headphones Picture: EPA/Col Anti-narcotics Police)
The family of the Australian woman, who was carrying almost 13lb (6kg) of cocaine, are now mounting a campaign to defend her against what they consider trumped-up charges.
They continue to say the 22-year-old was set up, but Colombian police said her arrest was indistinguishable from a growing number of drug cases involving foreigners.
Sister Khala Sainsbury said: ‘Our hearts break, because we know she is innocent, but stands little chance of proving it in such a corrupt country.’
Sainsbury said her sister, a personal trainer and volunteer firefighter, was in Colombia on a working holiday.
She told The Australian newspaper that while in Colombia, her sister went with a male friend she met before travelling to South America to buy headphones for her upcoming wedding party.
The merchandise was purchased from a contact in a pre-wrapped package, her sister said.
Jorge Triana, head of the anti-narcotics police at Bogota’s international airport, said Sainsbury’s claims that she was deceived are probably untrue and ‘in any case don’t excuse her actions’.
Woman stopped en route to London with £1,000,000 of cocaine in her suitcase
She is due to get married (Picture: EPA/Col Anti-narcotics Police)
She said: ‘Everyone who is caught says exactly the same thing. But they know what they’re doing.’
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine and its police among the best-trained to detect and stop drug smuggling thanks in part to billions of dollars in US anti-narcotics aid that has strengthened law enforcement.
As tourism to Colombia has boomed over the past decade, the country’s drug cartels are increasingly recruiting foreigners to smuggle cocaine out of the country.
Police have arrested 19 foreign drug mules this year alone, Triana said.
Sainsbury has been transferred to a women’s penitentiary in Bogota.