Sea Princess Cocaine Arrest
Canadians' Cruise Luggage Holds 95 Kilos
Police Seize $31 Million Value Cocaine Sydney Australia August 28, 2016
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Sea Princess Cocaine Arrest
Canadians' Cruise Luggage Holds 95 Kilos
Police Seize $31 Million Value Cocaine Sydney Australia August 28, 2016
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Three cruise ship passengers were arrest when Princess Cruises' Sea Princess docked in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, August 28, 2016 after police and sniffer dogs searching the cruise ship found smuggled cocaine inside two cruise ship cabins.
Three passengers from Quebec, Canada Andre Tamine, 63, Isabelle Lagace, 28, and Melina Roberce, 22, who is a manager at Pandora Store Downtown Montreal, were charged with importing 95 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated value of about $31 million. ( Trois Québécois arrêtés en Australie avec 95 kg de cocaïne )
Australian Border Force commander Tim Fitzgerald alleged 35 kilograms of cocaine were found in suitcases in a cabin Lagace and Roberce shared and 60 kilograms of cocaine were found in Andre Tamine's luggage in his cabin.
The two women were living large on the world cruise. Melina Roberce and Isabelle Lagace posted dozens of photos to their social media pages. In one of Melina Roberce getting a tattoo in Tahiti, she hashtagged #dumbanddumber. With new ink and new Nike shoes, Melina Roberce is prison-ready.
I will not be surprised to hear lawyers sat that these two women got duped into taking a free cruise with Tamine and ended up being unwitting smugglers. However, Isabelle Lagace has done a lot of expensive travel before this trip, to Caribbean, as photos show. Time will tell as we continue to monitor the case for updates.
This Australian cruise ship crime case is going to generate a larger media frenzy than the Dianne Brimble
Australian cruise ship drug overdose death case. That case drug on for years with a coroner's inquest that went on longer than any other cruise ship inquest case in history.
Taking photos on the drug smuggling cruise is becoming a trend. On the May 15, 2016 Freedom of the Seas cocaine smuggling arrest, the four women did the same thing. One went so far as to show herself smoking "weed".
The bust was a joint operation between the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), in cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Sea Princess embarked from Dover, England on July 9, 2016 on a 51 Day World Cruise from London, England to Brisbane, Australia. The cruise ship called at Cork, Ireland July 11, before crossing the Atlantic and arriving in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada on July 16, where the three Canadians are thought to have boarded.
The cruise ship then called at Boston, Massachusetts, New York City and Kings Wharf, Bermuda before calling at Cartagena, Colombia on July 27. Cartagena is the most likely cruise ship call where Tamine and the two women came back from a port call with a record amount of cocaine in their luggage.
Sea Princess then crossed the Panama Canal and called at Manta, Ecuador Callao (Lima), Peru, Pisco, Peru, Valparaiso, Chile and Easter Island, Chile before entering the South Pacific at Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Raiatea, French Polynesia, Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. At Sydney, Australia Sea Princess began a 17 Day Northern & Western Australia Explorer cruise.
The formal charge after their arrest was for importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The three are being held without bond until their court appearance on October 26, 2016 in Sydney Central Local Court.
According to the Cruise Ship Drugs
website this is the sixth major drug bust this year.
The last cocaine smuggling arrest of this size was back on February 23, 2011 aboard Grandeur Of The Seas which was docked at Montego Bay, Jamaica, when 73 pounds (33 kilos) of cocaine was seized. The total cache of cocaine was estimated to be valued on the street at $100 million.
Grandeur Of The Seas had just came from Cartagena, Colombia. Cruise ships calling at that port are a red flag to law enforcement. After cruise ship passengers or crew leave the ship to go into port they are suspects when disembarking at their final destination. That story is has another puzzling fact involved. Crew member Sandip Surwade went overboard during that cruise. The story is on Cruise Ship Drugs
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