Accused Aussie drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury, or ‘Cocaine Cassie’, has made a dramatic new claim of innocence.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Sainsbury has alleged there is evidence to support her innocence claim on her mobile phone – but that she can’t remember the PIN to unlock it.
The 22-year-old South Australian woman told the program on Sunday night that there were emails, messages and photos on her phone that would see her walk free from a Colombian prison if recovered.
Liam Bartlett, the reporter from 60 Minutes, asked if it was ‘incredibly convenient’ that the evidence of her innocence on charges of attempting to smuggle almost 6 kilograms of cocaine out of the country in April existed but was unobtainable, Sainsbury responded, ‘I’m sure if you were in prison for five months, you’d forget it.’
Sainsbury also claimed that she had believed she was going to be carrying ‘documents’ in return for $10,000, and that unnamed people had threatened her and her family with death if she didn’t go through with the job.
When asked if she had any suspicions, the Adelaide resident said it did ‘cross her mind’ but that she ‘had outstanding bills.’
She claimed she did not know who organised the document-transportation job, or who booked or paid for her airfares, and it was only once she was in the Colombian capitol of Bogota that she was told by a local man in on the deal that she would be carrying drugs.
‘I didn’t know of the quantity, I didn’t know how it was hidden, I didn’t know anything, all I know is it was a package,’ she told Bartlett.
According to the report aired on Sunday, Sainsbury will appear in court on Tuesday to hear the full details of the prosecutions case against her.
A prior plea deal that would have seen her get a reduced sentence fell apart in August after she refused to accept sole responsibility for the drug smuggling.
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