EXCLUSIVE
Convicted drug mule Cassie Sainsbury is expected to be embroiled in a new legal battle following the publication of her “revealing” new memoirs this month.
The 29-year-old, better known as ‘Cocaine Cassie’, has promised the book will offer a gruesome, uncensored account of her time locked up in a Colombian prison after being caught trying to smuggle 5.8kg of illicit drugs out of the country. country. country.
But legal experts warned the Commonwealth would likely move to recoup any profits the debut author made from her autobiography under strict proceeds of crime provisions that prevent criminals from cashing in on her notoriety.
Sainsbury spent three years caged with 1,800 other criminals in the notorious El Burén Pastor women’s prison outside Bogotá after being arrested at the city’s El Dorado airport in April 2017.
During that time, she claimed she became a primary target for other inmates and was repeatedly “beaten,” “stabbed,” and “raped.”
Sainsbury was released in April 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic amid fears of overcrowding and served a further two years on parole before being deported.
The former brothel worker said she had spent the last four years struggling with the trauma of the “dark world” she found herself in after her failed international smuggling career and was “finally ready” to tell her full story.
The promotional copy of her book claims that “the woman the world would come to know as ‘Cocaine Cassie’ survived beatings, stabbings and rapes as her story unfolded in public, distorted by lies and exaggerations that developed over the years.” years”.
Cassandra Sainsbury has revealed she will publish a memoir about the three harrowing years she spent in a Colombian prison after being convicted of drug trafficking.
The 22-year-old was arrested at Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport in 2017 with 5.8 kg of cocaine inside 18 pairs of headphones in a box.
‘Now, in her own words, Cocaine Cassie sets the record straight in this raw and heartbreaking account of what it was really like. Bruised, battered and scarred, she tells how she was forced to become a drug mule.
‘It is a story of pain and loss of hope for a future. But it is also a story of her rise toward forgiveness and redemption, toward creating a life where a woman’s past does not define her future.
‘I’m not “Cocaine Cassie.” I’m Cassie Sainsbury.
Ironically, given the final line of the promotion, the next book is titled ‘Cocaine Cassie’ and will be published by publisher New Holland on October 15.
The suggestion that the former Adelaide fitness instructor is “finally ready” to reveal the truth about her sordid past has raised eyebrows given the numerous “revealing” interviews she has already given to Nine’s 60 Minutes and Seven’s Spotlight shows .
During those extensive appearances, which occurred both during his time in prison in Colombia and since his return to Australia, Sainsbury claimed he carried out the failed drug deal after his family’s lives were threatened.
In an infamous interview with then-60 Minutes reporter Liam Bartlett inside the walls of the El Buren Pastor women’s prison in 2017, she claimed she had all the evidence to clear her name saved on her mobile phone, but she couldn’t. remember your access code. .
Speaking to Seven’s Ross Coulthart in 2022, she claimed she was recruited into the smuggling operation while working as a receptionist at a western Sydney brothel and had previously shipped illicit packages across Australia.
‘Cocaine Cassie’ Sainsbury, now 29, claims she is “finally ready” to tell the whole truth about her time behind bars, despite having given countless interviews about it.
Sainsbury’s next book is titled ‘Cocaine Cassie’ despite convicted drug mule saying she criticizes nickname
‘Cassie’s situation is similar to Schapelle’
Although it has long been speculated that Sainsbury was paid for all of her television interviews, as well as her appearance on fitness reality show SAS Australia last year, no action has been taken against her so far.
The Australian Federal Police has previously demonstrated its determination to prevent high-profile criminals from profiting from their misdeeds.
The AFP launched legal action against Schapelle Corby in 2006 when he wrote a similar memoir, My Story, while serving time. in Bali’s Kerobokan prison for attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia.
Although the book’s copyright had been assigned to Corby’s sister, Mercedes, and co-author Kathryn Bonella, the Commonwealth managed to seize almost $128,000 in payments made to the convicted drug mule’s family.
The AFP also raided Channel Seven’s Sydney headquarters in February 2014 seeking evidence that the network intended to pay Corby for an upcoming interview after his release from prison.
Prominent Sydney lawyer Richard Mitry said Sainsbury’s upcoming memoir would likely provoke the same response and could see her return to court.
“Under federal proceeds of crime legislation, someone who has committed an indictable offense – such as drug trafficking – is prohibited from obtaining what is defined as ‘literary income’ in relation to the offence,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Now, literary income is, in fact, any financial benefit that someone derives from the commercial exploitation of their notoriety or, in other words, their fame as a result of their crimes, and that includes publishing books and giving interviews.
‘So Cassie Sainsbury’s situation is very similar to Schapelle Corby’s.
His fellow convicted drug mule, Schapelle Corby, was accused of trying to profit from his criminal notoriety.
The Commonwealth managed to seize $128,000 in payments made to Corby’s family after she wrote an autobiography while behind bars for drug smuggling in Bali.
‘(Schapelle) was convicted of drug trafficking and wrote a book about it, and the Commonwealth – in that case, the AFP – managed to confiscate her rights.
“Frankly, I don’t see why (Sainsbury) would be treated any differently.
‘The only key counter-consideration is whether they are concerned that it would cost taxpayers $100,000 in legal fees to potentially seize something like $50,000.
“But ultimately I think it will come down to a question of principle and the desire to send a strong message to discourage anyone from trying the same thing.”
Neither Corby nor his publishers wanted to know whether they had taken the proceeds of crime provisions into account when negotiating the book deal.
Under the legislation, it is not illegal for Sainsbury’s editors – or commercial television networks – to pay you for your story; just so she can profit from selling it.
Australian federal police raided the Sydney offices of network Seven in February 2014 looking for evidence that the channel was paying him for an upcoming reveal.
Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks had $10,000 in book sales payments frozen for more than a decade under proceeds of crime laws before the Commonwealth dropped the case.
The AFP has not confirmed whether it intends to freeze any payments Sainsbury receives in relation to the book.
David Hicks, who was captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 after training with Al Qaeda, was also subject to proceeds of crime laws.
Hicks served six years at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to Australia to complete a sentence imposed by a US military court for supporting terrorism.
In 2001, the Commonwealth announced that it had launched criminal action over Hicks’s autobiography Guantánamo: My Journey, which sold around 30,000 copies.
About $10,000 in book sales payments made to Hicks’ family were frozen, but the Commonwealth dropped the case in 2012 after he claimed his conviction was illegal.
