Australian police on Monday said they had charged three Canadian cruise ship passengers with drug smuggling after finding 95 kilograms of cocaine in their cabins.
A woman charged with one of Australia's largest cocaine busts has indicated she may plead guilty to her alleged involvement in the 95kg haul from the cruise ship Sea Princess.
Isabelle Lagace, 28, is one of three French Canadians arrested in August after their lavish world cruise berthed in Sydneyand customs officers allegedly found $31 million of cocaine in two suitcases.
Ms Lagace's lawyer Louis Ialenti told Central Local Court on Friday ahead of a committal hearing that his client may enter a plea and proceed to sentencing.
Ms Lagace was charged along with Melina Roberge, 23, and Andre Tamine, 63, over commercial importation of the drug. All three have been in custody since late August.
On Friday, the committal hearing before Magistrate Beverley Schurr was temporarily adjourned after the two female accused arrived from Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre but Mr Tamine's prison truck from Long Bay was delayed.
Ms Lagace and Ms Roberge recorded their trip to Australia via posts on Instagram.
After posing for a glamorous series of shots during 51 days on board sunbaking and relaxing in South America, Tahiti and French Polynesia, the pair were arrested when the ship berthed in Sydney in late August.
Following the arrests, Australian Border Force (ABF) regional commander Tim Fitzgerald said the drug seizure was the nation's largest ever narcotics bust through passenger transportation.
The cruise was documented on Instagram between early July and late August. Photo / Instagram
Ms Lagace and Ms Roberge, who with their co-accused Mr Tamine, are from the French Canadian province of Quebec, are on remand in prison and facing possible life sentences behind bars.
They are charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug which the ABF alleges was imported for the Australian market by a "very well organised syndicate".
The trio's $20,000-a-head cruise began in North America and sailed via a series of exotic locations including Bermuda, Colombia, Peru and Chile before making its way through islands in the Pacific to Sydney.
The cruise, which should have ended in Fremantle, Western Australia, ended for the Canadians when officers boarding the liner allegedly discovered the drugs in plastic bags in two suitcases.
"This is the biggest seizure of narcotics through a passenger stream, so either through the airport or cruise ships, this 95kg of cocaine is the largest seizure we've seen in Australia," ABF commander Fitzgerald said following the arrests.
The cruise was documented on Instagram between early July and late August. Photo / Instagram
The maximum penalty for smuggling a commercial quantity of cocaine, a federal offence, is life imprisonment.
