‘Cocaine Cassie’ Sainsbury has shared an emotional post on social media on the seventh anniversary of her arrest at a Colombian airport.
Sainsbury, now 29 and living in Adelaide, shared a video of herself with tears running down her face with the caption: ‘Definitely not my favorite time of year. Seven Easters later and it still feels like yesterday.
The then 22-year-old was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, just days before Easter 2017, with 5.8 kg of cocaine in 18 headphones.
Cassie Sainsbury shared an emotional Instagram post on her seventh Easter from prison. She served almost three years of her six-year sentence in a notorious Colombian prison
She was nicknamed ‘Cocaine Cassie’ in the media when she served almost three years of a six-year sentence in the infamous Colombian prison El Buen Pastor.
Sainsbury was released from prison under a humanitarian decree issued during the Covid pandemic, which allowed 4,000 prisoners to be released into home detention.
She returned to Adelaide in August 2022.
Speaking to Kate Ritchie on Fitzy & Wippa last year, Sainsbury revealed she was regularly attacked in prison.
‘I’ve had a lot of blows. I got beat up a lot. I was stabbed. I received two stab wounds on my arms where I was stabbed. “I’ve experienced a lot of things that I wouldn’t ever wish on anyone,” she said.
“Obviously it’s the gringa (a Spanish slur meaning foreign woman) in a Spanish prison, and that just gets the attention of you know, rich white girl. It must, I think, intimidate her until that’s all there is to it.’
Now back in Australia, Sainsbury still has a social media presence and sells exercise programs.
In 2023, she appeared on the reality TV show SAS Australia, but quit on the second episode.
Sainsbury was released from prison under a humanitarian decree issued during the Covid pandemic, allowing 4,000 prisoners to be released into home detention
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph after her departure from the show, Sainsbury said she has struggled to find work since returning to Australia.
‘I applied for all sorts of things: gym work, administration, catering and cleaning. It always comes up and it probably won’t happen,” she said.
‘I don’t want special treatment, I don’t want to be in the spotlight, I just want a normal life – a nine-to-five job, an eight-to-six job, just an everyday job, but I keep getting rejected.’
However, Sainsbury has found love with his wife Tatiana, an IT technician.
The couple met in a Colombian nightclub in 2021 and got married in 2021 beach ceremony in Colombia in early 2022.