Rabat – A recent investigative report, conducted by the Canadian media TVA, revealed that three Canadian nationals who were busted two years ago for importing 95 kg of cocaine into Australia were only pawns in a vast operation involving at least 12 people in Quebec, Morocco, Mexico, and Peru.
The Australian Border Force arrested the Quebecers Isabelle Lagace and Mélina Roberge along with another man from Quebec, André Tamine, on board a cruise liner headed from England to Australia.
Lagace and Roberge gained international notoriety chronicling their seven-week luxury cruise vacation on Instagram. Authorities said they were arrested when the ship finally docked in Sydney in August 2016, calling the 95-kilo bust Australia’s biggest-ever seizure of narcotics carried by passengers of a cruise ship or airline.
Lagace was sentenced to seven and half years behind bars, while Roberge and Tamine will stand trial on February 26 in Sydney.
According to media reports, the “three Quebecers are believed to be nothing but simple pawns in an alleged conspiracy.” The investigation found that a 48-year-old businessman was planning to seduce Roberge, 24 years his junior, after he told her about a trip to Australia that could put an end to her financial difficulties and fund her dream: plastic surgery.
According to the authorities, the businessman denied any link to the import of cocaine into Australia
The Australian police are also investigating a 31-year-old French citizen, who met Roberge and Lagacé in Casablanca, where he operates a small computer company also based in Nice and Montreal.
Authorities said that both Roberge and Lagace are believed to have returned from this trip with at least EUR 8000.
