Canadian Trio Charged For Smuggling $30M In Cocaine

Posted on

André Tamine, 63, Isabelle Lagacé, 28, and Melina Roberge, 22, all from Quebec Canada, have been charged with importing a commercial quantity of cocaine.

How big is this quantity? 200 lbs of it and worth $23 million. The smuggle is the largest ever seizure of narcotics carried by passengers of a cruise ship or airliner in the country. It was seized by the Australian Federal Police on a cruise ship docked in Sydney on Sunday.

Australian authorities worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the New Zealand Customs Service and the Canada Border Services Agency in the operation, identifying the trio as “high-risk passengers.”

“These syndicates should be on notice that the Australian Border Force is aware of all of the different ways they attempt to smuggle drugs into our country and we are working with a range of international agencies to stop them,” Australian Border Force Assistant Commissioner, Clive Murray, said in a statement.

What could have been something out of a movie, was chronicled right on Instagram.

According to the Toronto Star, Tamine, Lagace, and Roberge were traveling on the MS Sea Princess, a cruise that began its two-month journey from England.

Several stops on the way in North America included the Caribbean and South America, all of which were covered on social media by Roberge and Lagace.

Authorities do not know yet how the three are connected but the trio face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment,