One of the infamous “cocaine babes” involved in a massive $21 million drug bust has broken her silence about prison life and her plans to spend the dirty money.
Canadian Isabelle Lagace was arrested in 2016 as part of one of Australia’s largest drug sweeps when nearly 100 kilograms of cocaine was found on a luxury cruise liner in Sydney Harbour.
The then 28-year-old was sentenced to a minimum of four years and six months in prison the following year and was released in February 2021.
Lagace has now broken her silence about life in an Australian maximum security prison and what she had planned for her ill-gotten gains.
Lagace (right) and accomplice Melina Roberge have both been returned to Quebec, Canada, after serving four years in prison in Australia for drug smuggling
“If I didn’t get caught, I’d probably be a big asshole with a lot of money,” she told 60 Minutes in a preview of an episode airing Sunday night.
Reflecting on her time in prison, she said, “They took me to a maximum security called ‘Silverwater’, opened the door and said ‘welcome to Australia.'”
Lagace pleaded guilty after attempting to smuggle 30 kilograms of cocaine into Australia to pay off a $20,000 debt.
She was one of three people arrested as part of a seven-member drug cartel aboard what was described as a “floating drug warehouse.”
Her glamorous accomplice Melina Roberge received a longer sentence than Lagace for pleading not guilty.
In 2018, Roberge, then 22, was sentenced to eight years in prison with a non-parole period of four years and nine months.
Both women have since been released from prison and deported back to Quebec, Canada.
Lagace and Roberge posted a series of photos to social media of them enjoying the cruise ship’s journey around the world
ABF members found a suitcase with 30 kilos of cocaine in the cabin of Lagace and Roberge
Apart from the two women, only one other male employee went to prison.
Canadian man Andre Tamine, then 65, was sentenced to eight years and five months in prison in 2018.
The group had embarked the seven-week cruise on the Sea Princess in Dover, England, on July 9, 2016, and planned to sail to destinations such as the US, Bermuda, Colombia, Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane as part of a round-the-world trip.
Roberge and Lagace bit themselves drinking from coconuts while posing with armed soldiers on a beach, in caves and near bays, usually in their swimwear.
The ship arrived at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney Harbor at 6:50 am on 28 August 2016, where members of the Australia Border Force searched the two cabins the group was staying in.
ABF members found three large suitcases filled with 42.74 kilograms of cocaine in Tamine’s cabin, and another suitcase with 30 kilograms of cocaine in Lagace and Roberge’s cabin.
Roberge (above) posed in an Instagram photo with soldiers
The cocaine found in the women’s cabin had a street value of approximately $21 million.
After their arrest and first court appearances, it emerged that Lagace had been a stripper at a Montreal nightclub and then acted in adult films.
It would later emerge that Roberge had had a sexual relationship with an older ‘sugar daddy’ she had met at a nightclub.
He had paid her expenses in exchange for her working as an escort for men to whom he had introduced her in nightclubs in Morocco and Montreal.
The same man promised both women – who had accumulated huge debts – up to $100,000 if they could carry the 95kg of cocaine through Australian Customs without getting caught.
They were offered first-class cruise tickets worth $20,000, plus $6,000 spending money, and told to “take pictures in exotic locations and post them on Instagram” to serve as bait for the drug plot.
A documentary was released last year in which Lagace talks about the ordeal, titled ‘Cocaine, Prison & Likes: Isabelle’s True Story’.