Australian Border Police arrested two Canadian women for cocaine possession in Sydney on Sunday. Cops, together with sniffer dogs, boarded the cruise ship MS Sea Princess, which carried 2,000 people on round-the-world trips from the UK to Australia.
A total of 95 kilos of the drug have been found from a suitcase in a passenger cabin. It is the biggest single drug seizure in Australia's history. A 63-year old man was detained in connection with the incident.
Social media accounts unveiled that 22-year old Melina Roberge and 28-year old Isabelle Lagace visited Canada, USA, Colombia, Peru, New Zealand before arriving in Australia.
Pictures of the two in bikini selfies, notably on Instagram, surfaced on the internet. It also appeared that the trips of the women were well-documented.
Two photos in Tahiti showed them drinking coconuts while kneeling on the beach. Another presented the two driving dune buggies in Peru.
Roberge has one getting a leg tattoo. A picture of Lagace showed her wearing a necklace made from beads in the form of marijuana leaves. It is unclear where the women boarded the ship but based on their Instagram accounts, their most recent trip came from Tahiti three days prior to their arrest.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) issued a statement that the three will be facing an offense of importing drugs with a commercial volume into the country. All three will be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. It was reported that the confiscated drug amounted to around 30 million Australian dollars or 23 million USD. Currently detained in Sydney, the suspects will have trials typically lasting from 12-18 months.
It remains unclear how police were alerted about the drugs but according to the Canadian media, the three have been considered as high risk travelers by border agencies. The Australian Border Force (ABF) has cooperated with the US Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Border Agency in the bust.
