Quebec woman sentenced for role in Australian cocaine smuggling

A Quebec woman who pleaded guilty to importing a large amount of cocaine into Australia was sentenced Friday to seven and a half years behind bars.

Isabelle Lagace gained international notoriety when social media posts documenting her seven-week luxury cruise vacation went viral after her arrest.

Authorities said she and two other Quebecers boarded the MS Sea Princess in England and were arrested when the ship finally docked in Sydney in August 2016.

Police used sniffer dogs to find what they said was 95 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated value of $30.5 million.

Officials said at the time that 35 kilograms were found in locked suitcases in a cabin shared by Lagace and another Quebec woman. An additional 60 kilograms was found in the cabin of a man, also from Quebec. It was described at the time by the Australian Border Force as the largest seizure in Australia of narcotics carried by passengers of a cruise ship or airliner.

The two other Quebecers, facing similar accusations of importing cocaine into Australia, have pleaded not guilty.

Andre Tamine and Melina Roberge will have their respective trials next February.

According to the clerk at the New South Wales district court, Roberge is due back in court Nov. 21. Lagace, 29, who’d pleaded guilty earlier this year, was sentenced Friday in a Sydney courtroom. Australian broadcaster Nine Network reported she told the court she assumed responsibility for her actions and that they would haunt her for the rest of her life.