Original subtitles

(theme music)

- Good evening, a major operation involving security

agencies from around the world has culminated

on Sydney Harbour with a huge drug bust.

(ship horn sounding)

Two Canadian women, and a man, are behind bars

after allegedly being caught with 95 kilograms of cocaine

on the cruise ship Sea Princess,

with authorities calling it the biggest seizure of its kind.

(dramatic music)

- I've written a lot about drugs into Australia.

And 95 kilograms on a cruise ship was gonna be a story not matter what.

(reporter): Packets and packets of cocaine.

- This was the largest importation of drugs

on a cruise ship.

(in French):

- We'd gone on this world cruise.

Right at the very end of it,

there was this big scandal that happened.

(reporter): Photos have emerged on social media.

(in French):

- They travelled the world in luxury, documenting it all

on social media.

- Gorgeous women in bikinis on beaches and a drug charge.

It throws this sort of Miami Vice kind of salacious vibe

onto the whole thing.

- I mean, look, you've got bikinis and drugs.

- Who would have expected that on the Sea Princess?

It's just like one of these movies on Border Patrol.

(suspenseful music)

- Two women brazenly putting photos on Instagram

with kilograms and kilograms of cocaine in their cabin.

Social media, drugs, crime, organized crime,

glamour, cruises, beautiful women.

Basically the perfect tabloid story.

(suspenseful music)

- It was in all the papers, it was all through

the internet. Everybody was talking about these two

young girls that had taken photos of themselves

all the way through the trip and got busted in Sydney.

- I know what they said.

"The two bimbo girls with their pictures, na, na, na...

So stupid that they fucking took like, you know, all those photos

of whatever..."

(reporter): 28-year-old Isabelle Lagacé was one

of three people charged.

- She looked like she didn't have a care in the world,

posting glamorous cruise ship holiday photos on social media.

- I'm in the ocean, of course, I'm gonna take photos and post it. Who wouldn't?

Yeah.

Do you want me to introduce myself as the...

(chuckling) ...drug smuggler?

(upbeat music)

I am Isabelle Lagacé.

I'm 34. I'm from Canada.

From Quebec, it's the French-Canadian part.

So in 2016,

I accepted a trip and, um,

I got... caught with

30 kilograms of cocaine in my luggage

underneath my bed.

I think the story blew up

just because of the exotic photos that we took

and the fact that we were two young women.

- Women trafficking drugs for a criminal organization

is not a news story.

But when you add these elements and these photos

and these beautiful women, it does become more interesting.

And that really became the story here.

- The story just became about them on Instagram,

they became caricatures of people, you know...

A porn star and a sugar baby importing drugs.

- It looked like both women were involved in the sex industry.

- Um, I understand that she was a... she did porn.

- They talked about me being a porn model a lot.

(in French):

- I'm not a porn star, I'm not a drug dealer.

I'm not an escort, I'm not what the media

portrayed me as.

Honestly, if I was, I wouldn't have chosen

to move cocaine to make money. I mean...

- Things to know about Isabelle.

She's a woman of character.

She shows up, you notice her.

Even if she doesn't want to, she's noticeable.

(in French):

(chuckling)

- Yeah, I do have a pretty bad

character, sometimes.

Resting bitch face...

(in French):

- She's goofy. She's funny. She's loud.

She's genuine.

And I think that's really cool.

(soft music)

- I've never really fully felt that we got the full explanation

about what happened on that ship.

I don't think we've ever really truly been told.

- It's not the sort of operation where you just turn up

to a cruise ship, wonder on and happen to come across

95 kilograms of cocaine.

A significant amount of time and effort

went into this particular operation.

- It's the biggest seizure on a cruise ship

coming into Australia.

And I think it probably will be for some time.

- What was the environment of which two young women

can say yes to something so extreme as an importation

into another country?

(reporter): The drugs were not on board when the Sea Princess

departed the UK in July.

Authorities believe they were picked up

at one of the South American stops,

in either Colombia, Ecuador, Peru or Chile,

before cruising through the Pacific Islands to Sydney.

- In my mind, I'm going, "Well, how did you pay for this cruise?

'Cause it's not a cheap cruise. It's quite expensive."

(rhythmic music)

- Everything started to make sense.

You know, all these odd things that were happening.

It's like, whoa, that's why they were doing it.

That's why they had all the money.

That's why there were those extra guys there.

That's why all this... You know, it just sort of went, "Ah!"

- And then, if I understand correctly,

there were four people, maybe, probably all men,

who got away completely.

And we know nothing of them, there's no photos of them.

(static)

(rewinding)

Two Canadian women, and a man, are behind bars.

(rewinding) ...and a man are behind bars...

(in French):

- There was another man, André, he was arrested with them.

But we haven't really heard about André

because he was older.

And I think it's interesting how the story has become

only about these two young women,

even though there was a man who was involved,

who got more money, had more drugs with him.

He has kind of faded into obscurity.

(soft music)

- It was glamorous. And it was out of a movie.

You know, those two beautiful girls going on a trip.

The trip of their life,

enjoying the sun, the cocktails and taking a lot of selfies.

(in French):

- It is sad they seek to obtain such a vacuous existence

where how many likes they receive is their currency.

- It's more of a sad story than a legal case, for sure.

(soft music)

- Afterwards...

I thought about... all the support I had

from my family and my friends,

and realized that I... everybody was there for me.

I should've just asked for help instead of just...

embarking in a project that...

You know, I'm risking my life.

(soft music)

- You know, here were two young women who had obviously found

themselves owing a lot of money to people

and had been made drug mules.

And that's not really an uncommon story for people

who find themselves in this situation.

- What I can say is that the people that get them in,

for the easy money, will always betray them.

- Yeah.

- No. No. (chuckling)

Hell no. Very... Two different human beings.

Two different stories as well.

I feel like, because we look alike and we were

two young girls, that they believed

that we were in this together.

But we were not.

(shutter clicks)

We had a blast together over there.

Like, a lot of photos.

She was...

She was, uh...

some sort of a good, uh...

(sighing)

I don't know.

I don't really wanna go there, to be honest.

(sighing)

She seemed like a nice person.

And just a regular girl, yeah.

- No. No.

You know, it's... Yeah, I'm kind of salty about what she did.

I don't know, I don't wanna be rude or anything,

she did what she did, whatever.

She's not a bad person.

(in French):

(horn sounding)

(soft music)

- Yeah, a lot of the pre-story of what happened in sort

of the events that lead to them both coming on the cruise ship,

I don't think we really fully got the full picture here

of what they were doing and as to why they had actually

decided to embark on this cruise ship with the drugs.

(upbeat music)

- I moved in Longueuil and started a job

at a restaurant.

(in French):

- We clicked instantly.

We hung out a lot, we used to smoke weed a lot together.

I was new in Longueuil, so I didn't really know

a lot of people, so she introduced me to her friends.

We spent a lot of time together.

(in French):

(indistinct chatter)

(glasses clinking)

(eerie music)

- Crime gangs are always looking for vulnerable people.

These were two women

who had their vulnerabilities exploited, I think.

- Many of these people who start getting involved

in drug trafficking have been chased by their own demons

of some kind, that we don't really understand very well.

(eerie music)

- Later on, mid-20s, I met a guy who turned out

to be very manipulative and controlling.

He got introduced to me from a friend in common that we had.

At the beginning, he was very nice.

But then, slowly but surely, he became very controlling

and violent.

- And...

People couldn't really approach her then.

She wasn't in a good state of mind, either.

And he was just a jackass.

You know what I'm saying?

He used to possess her a lot.

- I remember a night where I smoked weed

and I was so tired and I called him by my ex's name.

(laughing)

And he slapped me so hard, I couldn't eat for three days.

Yeah, I had to go.

It had to be over.

(distant thunder)

It was in the middle of the night.

I was like, "I gotta leave because..."

It was him or me. That night was so crazy.

I walked outside with no shoes on,

went to the corner store 'cause he kept my cellphone.

He didn't want me to leave.

And then, I had to ring the police.

And they were so quick. (sirens wailing)

They came, I believe it was within a minute,

they were home...

And they just stayed there until I packed my car and I left.

And then the only place that I thought to go knock,

it was my friend Jenny's house.

(knocking on door)

(in French):

(phone vibrating)

- That night, I remember he was calling me incessantly

and leaving me messages from: "Baby, I'm so sorry.

Come back home," to:

"You're a fucking slut.

I'm gonna kill you."

That was the day that it was over.

(soft music)

(in French):

- I was disappearing, slowly but surely.

Like literally, I was 100 pounds, like dying.

I was constantly stressed out.

On top of being aggressive and the relationship being

really heavy and toxic,

I made the mistake

of helping him financially.

So it brought me a lot of problems.

(rhythmic music)

(shutter clicks)

Alex, he was really

good-looking.

I knew him from way, way back.

He used to have a club back then.

He hit me up on the socials. And then, ended up hooking up.

And we started dating.

(chuckling) You know, a good guy.

(laughing)

(in French):

- Oh. Jennifer hated him. (chuckling)

(in French):

- I found this attractive at that time also.

(shutter clicks)

You know, I was always vibing with the bad boys back in the days.

So yeah, he ticked all the boxes.

He's really charming.

I think it's his white little patch on his beard.

I don't know, it's his beard. It's made like that.

But I thought he was so different

(in French):

- There was a mutual attraction.

And you know, one glass leads to another.

Then, yeah...

We just started kissing.

(in French):

- They had a really passionate relationship.

Passion is great, but sometimes,

passion can be, you know, poisonous a little bit.

He's dominant and he's smart, funny. He's got it all.

She's got it all, right?

So they were a power couple.

(soft music)

- We were together, but we weren't.

(in French):

- He was going through a really bad break up

with his long-term girlfriend.

And I think he just wanted company.

Like, I wanted company too.

(in French):

- I wanted more, obviously, but I was just patient with him.

He decided to tell me that he loves me

when I got arrested. I was in prison, so...

A bit too late.

Little too late.

(chuckling)

(soft music)

- We have been on cruises previously.

But was our first long cruise.

- A cruise is like a floating hotel.

Everything you get in a hotel you'll get on a cruise ship.

- I first come across Isabella in the coffee shop area,

which was on level 5.

And I spoke to her there.

I've got children the same age.

- You have.

You've got kids the same age.

- Yes. We had children the same age.

And it was like talking to one of your kids.

She was very approachable and she had no problem talking.

- But she said she was a bottle waitress.

- Yeah, she was a bottle waitress.

- And we'd never... What's a bottle waitress?

We'd never heard of a bottle waitress.

- Bottle service is in clubs.

You can book tables for events or just for a night.

And you gotta buy bottles to stay at the table.

And that's what I do.

I take bottle orders and I bring you everything you need.

(upbeat music)

I used to work in a lot of nightclubs.

It was fun in the beginning.

You know, you're partying, you look good.

You meet a lot of people.

Even though you're like, "Oh, tonight, I'm not drinking,"

you still end up drinking.

Sometimes, I would go to bed, it would be daytime.

And you gotta sleep because you start over at night.

So you don't really see the day.

You don't really see your friends.

And if you do that for too long,

you can easily get caught up in that depressing loop.

(soft music)

It's a big game.

When I used to get dressed and get ready to work,

it's like you're an actress of some sort.

Yeah, you gotta play the game and be the cool party girl.

(sighing)

I was just done with this.

I was fed up of this. I didn't really know

where I was going and what I wanted to do.

I tried to go back to school and I quit.

I wasn't able to combine day job and night work...

And it was hard for me to leave because it's good cash money.

(in French):

- I was thinking maybe I could start like a restaurant.

I told Alex that I was thinking about a pho restaurant,

to open like a Vietnamese restaurant

because I really liked that.

(in French):

- Yeah, I've never really been a big saver.

When you're young, you don't really understand

the responsibility behind credit cards and stuff.

Got a... couple credit cards and you know...

One thing led to another, you wake up one day,

you have bills. Like, you cannot pay them.

Yeah, pressure was on.

- Isabelle was heavily in debt.

She claimed that her ex-boyfriend had defrauded her.

- She had got a job working in hospitality.

Got a loan from someone of $20,000.

And then, had spent $15,000

on buying a car and paying off some other things.

- Most of the people that came before me when I was a judge

were people who had fallen on hard times

in the countries that they came from.

And now desperate for money,

and somebody would find them in a bar or somewhere else

and suggest to them his way of making some money.

(in French):

- You know, when you think of crime cities around the world,

people think of Miami, or Chicago, maybe Paris.

But Montreal has always been a crime capital

and a cocaine capital.

Montreal has a very strong,

rich and powerful organized crime community.

There are many powerful gangs that have always used Montreal

as their base.

- In the clubs, everything is normalized.

The criminal activity, the drugs.

- When it comes to bars, it's a natural place

for organized crime to hang out.

And it's a natural place for organized crime

to find their recruits.

- Unfortunately, in bars, you meet fucking...

crappy people that make you do crappy shit.

- A bar is a natural place to find somebody who is willing,

maybe a little vulnerable, can be manipulated...

I'm gonna keep seeing them over and over.

So you look at Isabelle, she works as a waitress in a bar.

And she comes across all kinds of organized crime figures.

- You know, people come back to see you.

You end up having your usual customers and...

Sometimes, you just open up to people who don't really want

the best for you, but you think they do. But...

I ended up just talking about my financial problems.

And people come to you and they're like,

"Yeah, well, I have something for you, you know."

I was fed up and I wanted money

quick to get out of this life and that got offered to me.

- There was someone who pulled her in.

This wasn't something done as a threat,

something done with angry words.

This was done more by pulling someone in

with soft words and promises.

- Unfortunately, at night, there are werewolves.

Like in The Little Red Riding Hood.

She needed something the wolf provided.

(dramatic music)

- It was purely financial.

I accepted the trip because there was money,

in the end, for me, if the plan was well executed.

Well, it was...

a good amount.

It was in the six figures.

So something that makes you think twice.

- They made Isabelle a pretty enticing offer.

They were gonna pay her something like $100,000,

all expenses paid and they were gonna wipe away her debt.

- It was also a very expensive cruise.

I think it was 20, $22,000.

And where do you get that money?

- A world cruise. Like, I don't know,

I think 12 or 16 destinations.

It's like, "Yeah! Hell yeah. I don't give a..." You know?

I don't care. I'll do prison.

(laughing)

(in French):

- How can I be the wind under her wings

if I'm bashing myself all the time for not...

having been able to dig more...

in her life, to have found out

that she was in that situation?

I didn't know.

I found out too late.

It sucks.

(in French):

- It's really easy for a person like I was back then,

and in the situation that I was, to say yes.

You gotta put yourself in my shoes.

I'm always struggling.

I didn't really second-guess it.

It was a very desperate move, but it was only money-focused.

And, uh... I decided to take it. Yeah.

Just, I was, yeah, over it.

I thought "fuck it".

(chuckling)

(shop horn sounding)

(soft music)

(in French):

- So I went to Morocco, by myself, to meet people

over there to discuss about it... a little bit.

It was funny because the media brought it up

as the planning of the trip.

But it wasn't, really.

It was really to go and meet people out there,

friends, you know, do a little partying, have fun.

(rhythmic music)

(in French):

- The country is amazing. It's a lot of pools, you know.

The bars will always include, mostly include a pool.

So a lot of pool parties, restaurant, beautiful food.

My kind of place. Yeah, it used to be my kind of place.

(in French):

- Yes, we discussed about the whole thing,

but it wasn't like we sat at a table and we unroll

a plan and we discuss like,

"Yeah, you're gonna enter there.

You're gonna stop there and then do this."

It was really not organized at all.

Yeah, we kind of sealed the deal, in a sense.

And then, we just partied the whole time, really. So...

(soft music)

And Mélina had already been approached for the trip.

We met in a restaurant a little bit before the trip.

She was 22 at the time.

She's young and pretty funny.

We had a good time that night.

- The first time I saw Mélina,

I have to say, I felt almost shy because she was so beautiful.

(laughing)

It was hard to look at her. It was really hard to look at her.

She was that pretty.

But like, as soon as we started talking,

I knew that she was someone of substance,

someone with a strong personality,

and someone that was not only beautiful from the outside,

but also from the inside.

- And Mélina is a classic example of somebody who

walks into a bar

and is attracted by that whiff of power and seduction.

And in her own words, finds a "sugar daddy".

- Montreal's upscale nightclub scene also

lead Mélinda Roberge to a man she calls "Sugar Daddy".

(in French):

(eerie music)

- Sugar daddy, sugar baby, this is a type of relationship

where you will exchange intimacy or a relationship

or, you know, dates, in exchange for money or treats,

or things like cruises, right?

(laughing)

- These sugar daddies, they have radar.

They can pick up the weakness, they can spot a weakness.

And they can spot the Mélinas.

They can see who is most vulnerable,

what buttons to push, how to seduce them slowly,

bring them in, step by step,

until they become part of their gang.

So Mélina's story is very, very common, sadly.

- That's the thing, her defence was that she accepted

the trip for likes and followers.

And also, she was approached by what she calls her sugar daddy.

But that's not my story.

I was not approached by a sugar daddy.

If I had a sugar daddy, I wouldn't have accepted

to move cocaine, you know?

I would've said, "Just give me the money."

(in French):

- I didn't know anything, she didn't tell me.

Of course she's not gonna tell me anything because I'm gonna

show up at her house and fucking, tear up some shit,

you know what I'm saying?

She didn't want to tell me, but she at least had the decency

and she loved me enough to tell me like,

"I'm leaving for a little bit, don't worry."

(in French):

- Yeah, I just said that I was leaving. So...

(in French):

- I think that it was around a year, a year and a half

that we were seeing each other.

So, um... I think he regretted that,

that he didn't do anything.

(soft music)

(in French):

(soft music)

- So the plan was to bring the cocaine from Peru

to Sydney on the cruise ship.

And I thought, "Maybe it's gonna work,

maybe it's not gonna work, but um..."

Yeah, I wasn't really...

thinking about the consequences of all this.

I wasn't aware of the quantity and stuff. So...

Yeah, they really downplayed it a lot.

They put it like, to be so easy and nice,

"And you're gonna have nice memories.

And you're gonna enjoy this. And then, you just do that

and it's gonna be over." You know...

Made it out to be so easy, "you're not gonna get caught."

And I believed it.

Really.

(soft music)

- When they arrive at the airport in Montreal,

Isabelle and Mélina meet four men for the first time.

- It's no secret, I'm not gonna mention who,

but there was other people involved in the organization.

- The investigative TV show Enquête revealed

that all six tickets were bought from the same travel agency.

In cash.

(cash register ringing)

- So in this case, it wasn't a surprise

to see these two women drug-runners

working with men of a larger organization.

Likely, the women didn't have any knowledge of who was higher

up or who all of the men were on the other sides

of the trafficking.

- I took the plane in Montreal on my way to England.

And then I took a shuttle from there, the airport,

to the ship.

(festive music)

- It was half a world tour.

We'd picked it up in Dover, in England.

And from there, we went all the way through

to Sydney, Australia.

- It was 49 nights. - 49 nights.

- It's pretty huge.

From up-close, it's pretty big.

And it was fun. You know, it's like...

You don't even remember what you're here for.

It's just like, "Oh yeah, I'm going on a cruise."

(laughing)

Yeah.

I was, I think, on the third floor.

No balcony, so a tiny, tiny cabin with two single beds

and a tiny bathroom.

It was pretty similar, if not even smaller than my cell.

So, um... Yeah.

It's not for me. I didn't really enjoy it that much.

- I can remember them coming to the table with the other men.

It was like, "Oh, okay, that's interesting people

that have just arrived in Dover."

- Mules are not left on their own.

For a trip like that, there is somebody always around them.

- His name was André.

Pretty quiet guy, he was very shy.

So I didn't really...

you know, discuss with him.

I didn't really think much of him.

I mean, he was... not standing out.

In his lane.

But yeah, I didn't really hang out with him much.

We were just all different people in the same boat.

(chuckling)

Yeah.

- They were smart with him because he was in his 60s

and didn't have a criminal record and wasn't on the radar.

And that's the sort of guy you want.

It's not a high-skilled job and you need someone

who's discreet.

A lot of people moving drugs aren't the people you'd suspect.

- And often, you know,

crime gangs aren't silly about this.

They're always trying to find new innovative ways

to get past the authorities.

They'll try and find anyone

that would not raise any suspicion

for law enforcement.

And I think that's what they had hoped might've happened

in this case, but it clearly didn't.

- They stood out.

- Yeah, they stood out straight away.

- Because they were very young.

Yeah. - Very attractive girls.

We discussed the cruise and why she picked that cruise.

Isabelle indicated that it was...

What can you say?

She didn't research it enough. - Yeah.

- And I said, "Yeah, I can see that."

Because we were classed as young people on that cruise.

The average age was 70, 75. - 80.

- A lot of people in their 80s.

- Yeah, but all of a sudden, here's these two young girls,

beautiful young girls on a ship full of old people.

(piano music)

- The average age for this particular world cruise

was 72 years old.

We were in our 50s.

So we were considered youngsters

until we hit Dover.

And then, some real youngsters got on. So...

- Yeah, if I knew that it was senior people,

I probably would've thought twice

because it's pretty weird.

People thought that we were like, the dancing crew.

Yeah. I should've...

do a little bit more research.

But who googles stuff like that before going to move cocaine

in another country.

And I couldn't really do research.

(chuckling)

So...

(piano music)

- It was a very good idea.

It's just that they should've got 60-year-old women

to go on there and not...

(laughing)

...you know, these very attractive young girls.

- Yeah. - Which to me is... silly.

(soft music)

- It was when the ship arrived in Sydney, Nova Scotia

that things started going wrong.

- Nova Scotia was... Yeah, very traumatic.

(laughing)

That's when the border force, Canadian Border Force,

entered the cruise ship and knocked on our door.

And I didn't understand what the hell was going on.

That was not fun.

We were getting ready in the morning to go

and visit Nova Scotia.

The night before, we met guys on the cruise

and they were pretty annoying

and I didn't want to be with them.

(phone ringing)

And the phone kept ringing

in our cabin.

And I told Mélinda, "Just don't answer it.

It must be those guys. I really don't want to see them today."

So we let it go. And then...

it knocks on the door.

So I check and it's the Canadian authorities.

So I'm like, "What is going on?"

And then, they started like, you know, looking in the cabin

really quick, checking in my bag.

Like, there's no drugs, or like, yet.

So technically, we're good, you know?

Yeah, they were really suspicious.

And I didn't even think about what happened

until when I heard that that other dude left.

- Is there somebody who snitched?

(in French):

(reporter): She handed her room key to a mystery man

and he placed the drugs in her bag.

- All of a sudden, the ship just changed.

- And then they handcuffed us and brought us to the feds.