Original subtitles

(wave crashing)

(upbeat music)

- Cruise ships in Australia are a pretty big business

given we're an island nation.

The cruise industry is huge here, people love it,

you know, you can jump on a cruise ship in Sydney

and pretty much go anywhere in the world.

- It was called a world cruise, and every year,

Princess Cruises has a world cruise

that goes from Sydney to Sydney or Brisbane to Brisbane.

- The Sea Princess Cruise was luxurious, magical,

nobody on board could've thought that there was a major

drug-smuggling operation under way.

(dramatic music)

- People in the organization knew the ship cruised

to the destination where the order was placed,

they had a contact there.

They could've asked for the quantity they wanted,

it wasn't expensive.

- We weren't told many information,

it was very unorganized, but still, I wanted to create

nice memories and try to make it feel as normal as possible.

(dramatic music)

- The two girls got on, but at the same time,

there were four guys who got on as well.

It was pretty obvious that they knew them,

but they seemed to keep their distance which was really weird,

I didn't quite understand the dynamics

of what was happening there.

- We had a table reserved for all of the cabins,

so we used to have dinner all together.

(Pedler): When we went across the Pacific,

I can only remember seeing three guys.

As for the fourth, well, he seemed to have disappeared.

(Lagacé): So when we left Nova Scotia,

I realized that one man that was part of the organization

left the ship.

- Michel Chiasson gets off the boat

and speaks to the coast guard.

(suspenseful music)

(♪)

(Sher): Given that drug trafficking is worldwide,

police increasingly are also trying to fight it in a worldwide way.

So you have Interpol obviously,

you have strong connections between police forces.

Canada and Australia are both part of the Commonwealth.

So, it's quite normal for somebody who's red-flagged

in their home country like Canada for that red flag

to follow them as they travel around the world.

- And it started from there,

I know they were following us from then, but at that time,

I should've really just left the boat.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

- New York City, we met like two street gangsters.

I think I kissed one when we went shopping

and we ended the trip at an Irish pub

and we had a few Jamesons there.

They were cool, they were cute guys.

(♪)

Bermuda, that was so nice to finally reach some warm weather.

- Bermuda was absolutely beautiful

and the waters are so blue.

- We would get to certain ports, we'd go on the buses,

we'd go off and have a look at all the tourist attractions,

and then we'd actually come back to the ship

and you're off to the next port.

And that's how it was.

- Colombia, we went to Cartagena

and I remember all the buildings were very colourful.

- It's pretty full on actually.

Sometimes, you're looking forward to a sea day to have a rest.

We call our sea days rest days because you get a chance

to just relax a little bit because once you hit land, 100 miles an hour.

(waves crashing)

(♪)

- They probably had fun at the start of it,

they probably both thought, "Oh this is my lucky day!"

(dramatic music)

(Lagacé): There was two other people who were part

of the organization. What was their role, I don't know.

Perhaps they got asked to embark the ship

after the crisis in Nova Scotia with the Canadian authorities.

I don't want to elaborate on any other people

who allegedly were part of the organization.

(♪)

- When you do the cruise, you get into a routine.

It's like our breakfast, our lunch, our dinner,

our shows and the girls got into a routine as well.

You'd see them in the cafeteria together.

You'd see 'em getting their photos taken on the main stairs.

- Together. - Together.

- But it wasn't too long before they became

the topic around the ship for everybody.

They started becoming known as "the girls".

(ship horn)

(mysterious music)

- People tend to talk and they would say,

"Why would they be on this cruise?

Why this one, why didn't they do one of the cruises

more designed for the young people?"

- I mean, the whole thing was strange.

There were so many strange factors, you know.

They had these beautiful glasses that they were putting...

that the waiters would put the wines in,

so we said to the waiter, "Why can't we have

those same glasses?" And he was like,

"Ah, you can, but you have to spend so much money

before you can actually do that."

It was like... We're not going to spend that much money

on wine and champagne, but they did it night after night.

So, there was some really strange things happening.

- No one really spoke to them, but everyone had a theory.

All kinds of theories as to why the girls were there.

Aw, they're not so good, like working girls, perhaps.

- You know, I'm here to move some drugs so,

I would prefer at the time, I would prefer that they think

I was a call girl than a drug smuggler, you know.

(♪)

- And you know, it was a very expensive cruise

so there might've been an assumption that they might not

have been able to afford it on their own

unless they were part of the sex industry.

- The girls turned heads.

They were always taking photos of themselves.

And my understanding was that they pretty much

recorded everything on social media.

(upbeat music)

- She's always on her goddamn phone.

They're all on their goddamn phone.

- Melina, she wanted to be everywhere.

I mean, like, I was following her on Instagram

as ex-colleague and I was like, wow,

you know, she's really living the life, you know,

lots of pictures in bikinis.

- And the way they documented the whole trip,

it did look like they were actually enjoying themselves

and having, you know, a trip of a lifetime.

- I, personally, I had fun.

You know, our nights back at the cabin,

a little bit tipsy and just taking weirdo selfies

with Snapchat filters, we had good laughs together.

- But on the other hand, here they were as part

of an international criminal enterprise and, you know,

it's kind of like hiding in plain sight.

- If the organization is larger

and trying to track where are the drugs,

seeing these photos of women at all these different destinations

is a way to know where their drugs are on a boat, right?

With location stamps and time stamps, right?

So it was a... maybe an insurance policy

for the higher-ups in the organization.

(suspenseful music)

- If you want to be posting whilst perhaps endeavouring

in a criminal activity, the severity of what was occurring perhaps

was a bit lost on them.

(♪)

- To take all the Instagram photos, I guess that was a way

for them to not think about it.

So, it was a way for them to say, "Here's all we're doing.

We're just on a holiday."

And through repeating that action, I think,

they started to believe the lie that they were creating.

They, I guess, thought that nothing was going to happen.

(laughs) - Aw, Alex.

We were texting a lot, I think he developed a little bit more...

emotions towards me because I wasn't there, you know?

You always miss what you don't have.

- We were really looking forward

to my return so we could be together, but um...

That's really weird because when I look back, I was not really stressed.

For me, failing was not an option.

I was money focused, I had a mission.

I was there to do that and it would work, you know.

(♪)

I don't know, it's really weird.

Is it like, a self-defence mechanism

to not be stressed at all?

I don't know, but yeah, I wasn't really stressed.

I was really thinking that I would come back home.

In my head, it would work and...

I was trying to stay positive, but yeah, too positive.

- And I'm like, "Are you okay, are you sure everything's fine?"

"Yeah, yeah, no worry, Auntie, everything's fine."

I'm like, "Girl, like, are you sure that everything's fine?"

"Yeah, everything is fine."

I go, "Okay, you come back now, quick."

And she's like, "Yeah, no worries, blah-blah."

She didn't come back right away.

(upbeat music)

- Peru, yes, we remember that.

- There was Inca ruins that we went and saw.

- Yes, and that was extremely interesting.

- The parts of Peru that we've seen were very poor, very dry, very dusty.

- Lima's very dangerous in that area.

There were buses that took you into town

because a lot of people get mugged, basically.

- It's one of the most dangerous city in the world I heard.

- When it comes to cocaine most people think immediately,

"Colombia" and that's true, it's big,

but there are basically three countries in that region

that are huge coca producers.

Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.

(♪)

- Peru is a place where you can go into the Andes,

produce drugs, be basically left alone

and you just get to the water, put it on a boat

and make your money.

(crickets chirping)

- No.

No, I did not, I was not taking part of that.

I did not.

We were aware that that destination

was the destination for the drugs,

but it was not going to be in our cabin yet,

so, we just continued the trip.

Just stayed out and enjoyed the streets of Peru.

(dance music)

We went with the cruise staff.

We went to eat,

and we stopped at a bar as well, had a little party.

Had way too much to drink.

We were completely drunk,

I remember doing a lot of Snapchat stories,

laughing and living our best life.

(suspenseful music)

(Lagacé): We came back late, her and I,

almost missed the ship over there.

(beeping)

They had security at the gates,

they were shut and um, I had to beg the security guy.

To let us in.

I think he made like a phone call to the captain

or something and he ended up saying, "Okay, you're lucky."

It could've been the end of the whole operation, you know?

(♪)

- So, you have this amazing product

that can make you a fortune.

Now, where are the users?

The users are over the world, but the biggest markets

are in America, Canada, Australia, Europe.

So, the same product you got for pretty cheap

from Peru or Colombia, you can make a nice fortune

in Canada or New York, but you might be able to make a killing in Australia.

- People pay here a lot more for drugs than what they would

in other parts of the world.

The police will tell you it's around about 300 to 350 dollars

a gram and there's prices being paid of up to 450 dollars.

So, they're always looking for new ways to bring it in

because it's just so profitable.

(♪)

-The most traditional way has always been through

shipping containers because we're obviously an island nation,

but in recent times, crime groups and cartels

have been trying to become a bit more inventive

with how they can get cocaine into Australia

and avoid the authorities.

This was sort of a new way that I hadn't really heard of before.

Especially 95 kilograms of cocaine.

(dramatic music)

- Whoever set the girls in motion knew that.

That ships would be the best place to smuggle your drugs through.

Getting back on the ship after being in port,

they weren't really that diligent with checking what you're bringing in.

- Yeah, the security was not really doing any security, really.

They were just putting the bags into an X-ray,

not even really checking, to be honest.

I think that's why they decided to do it that way,

because it was so loose.

Like loose security. Hmm.

- You weren't supposed to bring on wine or anything alcoholic.

- Well, you're allowed one bottle each of wine.

- I would walk on with four bags

and you could hear the wine clinking.

The bottles clinking, but no one ever stopped me

and said, "You can't do that." So, you know...

- That's a cruise. - Yeah.

(suspenseful music)

(Reporter): From sunrise to sunset and every hour

in between, Australia's big blue border is being guarded.

- Australia treats its border security very seriously.

It's a big political issue, from time to time.

They're quite harsh when it comes to the laws around drug importation.

- I didn't know jack shit, to be honest.

I wasn't aware that they spend so much money on security.

It was beginning to be a bit stressful.

You know, after Peru. But you know, the more hours

approaching Sydney, the more it was obviously nerve-racking,

but in the beginning, I wasn't really thinking about that.

I was just trying to enjoy the cruise as much as I can.

(upbeat music)

Tahiti, Papeete that was the most beautiful destination.

And there was another stop as well, and I really wanted to get a tattoo there,

so, I ended up getting this hand tattoo

and the artist was amazing.

That's the only thing I don't regret about the trip.

(laughing)

(Reporter): Lagacé claims she handed her room key

to a mystery man the night before the ship docked here

in Sydney and he placed the drugs in her bag.

She says she was assured the next step would be easy

because a woman of her age would not be stopped in customs.

- She knew something was put in there that shouldn't be in there.

She didn't know how much it was

and there was no fingerprints on the bag.

So, it's not like they had opened up the bag

and looked at it and made themselves aware.

It was almost like, they were willfully blind where they thought,

if I don't look at it, if I don't think about it,

it can't hurt us, but in the end,

it still came back to bite them anyway.

(dramatic music)

- New Zealand... where I realized that we were being followed.

When we disembarked, they were searching the bags

and I remember... (chuckling)

There was a gentleman and he really looked at us

from far away and I realized that at that time,

that's really weird. And when he grabbed my bag,

he really looked at me and started searching,

still looking at me and he had so much attitude

and I was like, "That's weird, you know."

There's a lot of little tiny things that happened

that I realized afterwards and I was like,

"Oh, okay, yeah, that makes sense now."

Of course, we were being followed.

(dramatic music)

- I think it's almost like you're swimming across a river

and you get halfway, there's no point in turning back.

If they bailed out, that would've been suspicious too.

I think they had to um... take a deep breath and keep on going.

- The night before we arrived at Sydney,

I had a dream where I was being caught.

It's like my intuition was telling me, you know?

And it's so weird, but it happened.

I was in a car in the backseat

and the car had a sharp turn, and then the door opened

and all the gear fell on the ground,

and then we got arrested because of that.

So, it was like a premonition, a little bit.

I realized that night that, you know, after I got arrested

that my intuition is so strong that I really gotta follow my intuition more

and listen to myself more.

If something's not right, it's probably not right.

- I was already there.

I was just... Where, where would I have gone?

I'm on a ship, should I just jump off the ship

and start swimming, you know what I mean?

I wanted the money and I believed that,

you know, it's make or break.

I was there, I said, "Yes, I'm just going to do it."

And then, I went to have breakfast

and that's when the border force entered the restaurant

and I knew it was it. It was over.

(suspenseful music)

(Reporter): Where cruise ships stop in Sydney

is the international passenger terminal

which is right next to the Harbour Bridge.

So, it was almost like the last picturesque stop

of their Instagram journey, which was the Harbour Bridge,

but they didn't get a chance to take any photos, I don't think,

'cause they were arrested.

- That morning, we'd packed all our bags,

we were getting off in Sydney.

Were in the coffee shop waiting for our numbers,

so we could go and leave, and catch our flights

back to Brisbane. And all of a sudden, the ship just changed.

(♪)

- So, Sydney morning, people are starting to disembark the ship.

Uh... I went upstairs at the buffet to eat my breakfast.

- Where we were sitting was near the elevator

and I turned to see a dog

and I realized, "Oh, this is the drug squad."

You know there's trouble when the drug squad are on board.

- Ah, when I looked up, there was border force

coming in from both exits 'cause I was facing the exit and um...

They proceeded to ask us

for our cellphone and identity.

(Lagacé): Yes.

Yeah, we were almost the only one in the restaurant as well,

so, yeah, of course, I knew it was for me.

(dramatic music)

They asked us to follow them to the cabin

and then there were people with dogs.

The dogs sat next to the luggage.

They asked if it was my bed, I said, "Yes."

And they asked if it was my luggage and I said, "Yes."

I didn't know the combination so,

they just cut it open to find about 30 kilograms of cocaine in my luggage.

(suspenseful music)

It's like an out-of-body experience, to be honest.

I was not really in the room, I was just, you know...

And I really wanted to stay strong for her as well

because she was just... hysterical.

So, I was just trying to stay in control of my emotions,

just to be strong for the both of us as well, you know.

- Here's these two young girls on the ground,

yelling, screaming, crying, begging.

Saying, "It wasn't us, it wasn't us."

And I think it upset a lot of people

that they couldn't help the girls or you know...

- It was like, "Oh, they're part of the family."

- Yeah. - Like, we're like a big family

on the cruise ship.

- At 7:10 in the morning,

the police launch a raid and it's with military precision.

They go straight to the cafeteria,

they pick up Melina and Isabelle,

go to their room and they find 30 kilos of cocaine.

Next, they make their way to the room of André Tamine,

and there, there's 60 kilos of cocaine.

(♪)

- Even the staff, like, the staff... the ship staff,

they didn't know what was going on...

- Yeah, you could tell they didn't know.

- They didn't know and they were trying

to get information to sort of tell us.

It was chaos.

(dramatic music)

- The whispers were happening at a thousand miles an hour,

so I was like, "Wow, that... Everything starts

to make sense now. Of course, that's what was happening, you know."

Yeah, they did just not fit in.

- That's like if you give up

and you're just like, "Yeah, fuck it."

It's over, you know, just let it go.

(♪)

- I saw the Border Patrol guys actually leaving the ship

and we were queued waiting to go through immigration

and these three huge guys came through,

and in between was one of the girls in handcuffs.

The girl, she was crying and mascara running

all down her face, not very pretty at all.

- I think they had been led to believe that it would be easy

or that there wasn't really a risk

or they would just have to take a holiday.

So, I think it was quite a shock for them

to actually be arrested, and then to go to court

and actually think, "Wow, we're going to jail."

I don't think that had crossed their minds at all.

- It's pretty weird like,

how you react in situations like that, like, you never really lived.

You don't know until it happens to you,

how you're going to react and I strangely stayed very calm and...

There was no point in screaming and kicking, you know?

They will find the drugs and you're going to go to prison so...

+Yeah.

And then they handcuffed us and brought us to the Feds.

(dramatic music)

(Reporter): Just as the Sea Princess birthed

in Sydney Harbour, Australian Border Force officers boarded,

went into the cabins where these suitcases were locked.

- Automizer or trace technology was used to scan

the outside of those suitcases and as a result, um,

a number of tests came positive for the presence of cocaine.

(laughing)

- Two Canadian women and a man are behind bars.

- This is the biggest seizure of narcotics

through a passenger stream, so either through the airport or cruise ships.

- Melina Roberge and Isabelle Lagacé.

- Isabelle Lagacé. - Isabelle Lagacé.

- Isabelle Lagacé.

- Meet the worst cocaine smugglers of all time.

Not our fault, though.

(phone ringing)

- I was fucking mortified.

(sighs)

- Isabelle Lagacé was a drug courier in disguise.

(phone buzzing)

- So what usually happens is you're taken to police cells,

so since they were arrested at the Harbour Bridge,

they probably would've been taken to the Surrey Hills police centre.

Then, you usually face court within a day or so.

- We stayed there for like, three or four days.

I don't remember really, because you lose track of time,

you don't have time, you don't have a watch, you don't have a phone.

And we got there and it was just concrete beds

and there was no mattresses and no... nothing to cover up.

And before bed, I remember officers throwing us like,

two mattresses, at least.

'Cause they could've left us there, sleeping on there so,

they were kind enough to give us that.

(soft music)

The first person I called was my ex-boyfriend, Alex.

Um... I wasn't ready to face my dad, I think.

- Hm.

- I don't know I didn't feel comfortable calling him,

and um, I called Alex.

(♪)

- And yeah, it was pretty weird.

I thought that was prison.

Nobody is telling you anything, you don't know what's going on.

What's... You can't ask questions, nobody cares,

so, yeah, it was pretty weird.

I had to wash my underwear in the sink.

It took a long time too before we could take a shower.

I had to ask, I didn't even know if I could.

I remember we had no sandals and we were barefoot,

so would had to walk on... Ugh, it was gross.

So gross, there was shit everywhere on the wall.

- Those cells are very rough and primitive.

It's... There's no comfort.

- A big contrast with the luxurious world cruise

I was just in, you know? A couple of days ago.

- Three Canadians have been refused bail after allegedly

trying to smuggle in 95 kilos of cocaine on a cruise ship

docked in Sydney.

- "She did that and she's in Australia and what the fuck,

what can I do, what can we and..."

I was just crushed and I just wanted to save her.

Of course, I wanted to go down there

and pay whatever amount of money and...

(suspenseful music)

- So, they took me to maximum security.

It's called Silverwater correctional centre.

They call it as well Mulawa.

I think it's the aboriginal name.

It's pretty impressive, at first.

You are in a truck, you don't really know

where you're going, it's cold, it stinks.

It's all metal.

Your handcuffs hurt.

You don't need to tie it that much, I'm not going to run.

And then, yeah, we entered the reception area

and there is a lot of cells and the officer

was asking me questions and it was like a jungle.

The girls were screaming, they recognized us.

I wasn't aware of the high media attention

that the case had at that time.

I thought it was maybe in Canada only.

They were like, they had smiles, they were like,

"Woo, I love your shoes!" You know?

Like fans, in a sense, it was pretty hectic.

So Mulawa is a prison where all kinds of felons

just mix up because everybody is awaiting sentence.

- Usually, those places are more comfortable

than the police station cells,

but they have to expect to spend months

if not years in custody

before the matter is finalized.

- And I remember that first time that officer

opened the door and it would reek,

it was smelling so bad. It was like the worst cell and I was like,

"Oh my God, it stinks."

And she's like, "Welcome to Australia."

I don't know, maybe she was hoping to say that.

I felt like she wanted to say that so bad,

and then she closed the door and locked it.

(door buzzer)

Your brain doesn't comprehend just yet that you're locked up.

So, I was still dreaming that I was free,

and then I would wake up and be like, "Shit, okay no.

I'm here, this... this is it, you know?

I'm not going to go out."

(soft music)

- Life.

As prescribed.

(dramatic music)

- Yeah, I just felt sorry because I've been going

through that with many of my clients

and I know that it would be a very long journey for them

from the time of their arrest until finalization,

and after, and then the publicity,

and I was just hoping that they get good representations.

It makes a big difference.

(♪)

(upbeat music)

- So there was an arrest in the morning.

The following morning, the information was brought

to my attention as I was at that point living in Australia.

I was a solicitor, lawyer, as you would call it,

in Australia, practising there.

It was the morning after that I made my way down to Sydney.

When I arrived, there was a line-up

of other Australian lawyers and solicitors.

- Oh my goodness, it's, it's... tantamount

to used-car salesmanship almost at times,

on these big cases, but at that moment,

you really saw the um, you know, the business side of the law.

I panicked a bit, wanting to, at that point in my life,

secure, you know, what would be a case of some note.

Dug into my briefcase at the time

and pulled out my Canadian passport and yelled

to the security guard, "I'm a lawyer from Canada,

I just landed. I need to see a client."

(chuckling) And as such, they put me

to the front of the line.

And I was able to speak to Isabelle first.

- It was weird because what are the odds

that a French-Canadian lawyer is actually in Australia.

- The first thing that actually jumped in my mind was,

"I wonder if they speak English?"

(soft music)

I hope they're not here stuck

and there's a huge communication barrier.

- I did not understand a word they were saying.

- Not our language, it's our slang.

(laughing)

- They like the sound of it, but they don't understand us.

- Yeah. - And my hearing is bad as well,

on top of their accent that I was not familiar with.

So, I remember an officer asking me if I was suicidal

and he had to repeat like, three or four times

and I remember him doing that like...

"Do you want to?" And I was like,

"No, that's fine. I don't want to kill myself."

They have to ask that.

- It was a moment of um,

I would say heightened stress for Isabelle.

The gravity of the situation had already hit home quite heavily.

However, I was quite surprised at her disposition

which I know now is a cover for, you know,

a lot, of course, as you can imagine,

enormous sleepless night.

And so, you know,

she covered it well at the beginning, for sure.

(♪)

You know, I looked at it also from a vantage point

that I still came back to Montreal to visit family.

You know, it's an expensive thing for family members

and friends to come give you support.

Which is really important at that time, you know,

some 20,000 kilometres away.

- He was flying quite often so,

he was willing to meet with my family and my father.

Just to discuss things that, you know, you can't really say

on the phone and I think it was really reassuring

for my family to know that I'm in good hands with him.

(♪)

- So, the legal system is very harsh on drug.

The Australian authorities and government are...

have a zero tolerance and there's a war on drugs here.

- It's extremely severe.

Australia's a serve place when it comes

to punishing criminality as opposed to my knowledge

of Canadian law and... There is a severity there.

- So Louis met me right before committal and he told me like,

"We should definitely show intention of pleading guilty

because going to trial, we wouldn't really have much chance to win."

(soft music)

And then, I would have to point a finger and stuff

and that was not something that I was willing to do so,

I was like, "Yep, let's do this."

(♪)

- She was starting to become really distant

and she was going to meet her lawyer and coming back,

"So what did you discuss?"

You know, and she was like, "Hm, uh, I don't really know. So."

(suspenseful music)

- It was part of the game plan.

We kind of knew that at certain points,

these are the points of contention that could arise.

We knew there was a facture coming.

We definitely did.

(♪)

- There was many stories calling her a porn star.

- You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

- It was such a betrayal.

Yeah, I felt betrayed.

- Prison is another planet.

Subtitling: difuze