^^
there you go, Mark

www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/catalina-from-colombia-happy-to-be-part-of-student-body-worth-58b-to-victoria-20160914-grga5m.html

The link should be in the "cutting uni fundings, increasings student fees" thread though

Not sure whether it was in news here, but in US.... they were tipped off after her ticket was bought in cash by a known Hong Kong syndicate just prior to her flight. Between that and who accepts any 'package' from someone you have just met... especially in Colombia. Not working, large debt in Australia. The headphones thing is the lamest excuse I've heard. She will just roll over and be back here in 3-4 years on channel nine giving the 'changed person' interviews!

Good to see the families got their priorities right.
www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/first-pictures-of-cassie-sainsbury-in-her-cell-in-a-colombian-prison/news-story/ed93d9a87c2a1eaebbda4fce16dfc95f

Well looks like the family is already cashing in big for an interview.
It is a disgrace if the government spends taxpayer funds in a criminal who deliberately tried to commit such offence.

Make the family pay the costs with the interview money they collected. All of this might be even planned from the beginning, why not? The rewards seem to the worth the hassle to a bunch of losers.

So even if she had got on the plane and left Colombia, surely when she arrived back in Australia our customs might have been ever so slightly suspicious of a solo traveler just returned from a quick week in Colombia with a whole lot of well-wrapped headphones? They might just nudge her down the red queue?

I am no authority on these things, but it would be nice to think she would have had no chance of getting through Aussie customs anyway. Or am I missing something?

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pearl said..
Not sure whether it was in news here, but in US.... they were tipped off after her ticket was bought in cash by a known Hong Kong syndicate just prior to her flight. Between that and who accepts any 'package' from someone you have just met... especially in Colombia. Not working, large debt in Australia. The headphones thing is the lamest excuse I've heard. She will just roll over and be back here in 3-4 years on channel nine giving the 'changed person' interviews!

How would they know if it was a syndicate if it was paid for in cash? Do the airlines know the drug dealers???

^^ they were tipped off
could have been any number of sources that told them a mob of druggies just bought a ticket for a dopey aussie girl.

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Mark _australia said..
^^ they were tipped off
could have been any number of sources that told them a mob of druggies just bought a ticket for a dopey aussie girl.

Yea but look at the way its reported is more at what Im getting at, imo she is guilty but you can pick holes in both sides. I hope they make this into a mini series, until then im not that interested.

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AUS1111 said..
So even if she had got on the plane and left Colombia, surely when she arrived back in Australia our customs might have been ever so slightly suspicious of a solo traveler just returned from a quick week in Colombia with a whole lot of well-wrapped headphones? They might just nudge her down the red queue?

I am no authority on these things, but it would be nice to think she would have had no chance of getting through Aussie customs anyway. Or am I missing something?

My guess about what happens in some countries is that they don't care too much about what leaves the country, only what gets in. I think you are right. Unless there was some other way to hand it off before you arrive in Aus, I think it would be found unless expertly packed. I suspect that some syndicates just use mules in a numbers game and hope that some get through. Cocaine is relatively cheap there, and expensive here, so why not?

I suspect that without the tip-off, she would have been able to leave the country. Except maybe if she were bound for the US, which seems to put a bit of pressure on other countries in controlling what arrives.

I haven't been to Colombia, but not being able to speak Spanish and going there by yourself is not the normal thing to do. I don't even think you would be able to find your way out of the airport that easily, let alone getting around by yourself for a week.

I can't find the US story here in oz but an extract I've pasted from from online SMH says much the same

US Drug Enforcement Agency tipped off Colombian authorities to their suspicions about an Australian woman potentially smuggling drugs out of the country before Cassandra Sainsbury was arrested at Bogota international airport, according to reports.

The last-minute purchase of a plane ticket in Hong Kong for the Adelaide woman to travel to Colombia via London was a red flag that raised the suspicions of US drug authorities, who alerted their Colombian counterparts, The Australian reported.
The plane ticket was bought by an unknown party for Ms Sainsbury, a former personal trainer, to travel to the South American country alone, and for a relatively short period.

Ms Sainsbury, 22, arrived in Colombia on April 3, and Channel Seven reported that US authorities might have forwarded her passport details to Colombian police as early as April 5, warning she might try to smuggle drugs.

Police arrested her inside El Dorado International Airport, in Colombia's capital Bogota, on April 11 as she prepared to board a flight to London.

Was it Colombian skull candy by any chance?

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DARTH said..

pearl said..
Not sure whether it was in news here, but in US.... they were tipped off after her ticket was bought in cash by a known Hong Kong syndicate just prior to her flight. Between that and who accepts any 'package' from someone you have just met... especially in Colombia. Not working, large debt in Australia. The headphones thing is the lamest excuse I've heard. She will just roll over and be back here in 3-4 years on channel nine giving the 'changed person' interviews!

How would they know if it was a syndicate if it was paid for in cash? Do the airlines know the drug dealers???

The airlines don't give a toss who buys tickets, how and for who but somewhere in a basement are government computers that have been programmed to look for tell-tale markers, certain credit card numbers, IP addresses, probably obvious stuff like tickets bought in Honk Kong for cash for an Aussie who isn't in Hong Kong.... big brother is always watching.

The least the stupid girl could have done was work on a decent cover story before she got pinged. Business trip, buying headphones for wedding presents, what is it? amateur hour? Stupid crooks get caught easy.

On the 'banged up abroad' program there was a woman that got mixed up with the wrong people in Colombia and they tried to force her to leave the country with a fake pregnant belly filled with packs of cocaine. Unfortunately for her she couldn't remove it when she changed her mind and the security people at the airport caught her, so she is in jail there for a while.

It makes me wonder how many actually get through. There must be enough to make it worthwhile.

I get tired of the endless support for stupid people and she is stupid

I go in and out of Colombia regularly ....... ohhhh thats right, my partner is Colombian and I have NEVER Had the "white marching powder " offered, never had an issue with customs etc ..... but it tourists seem to love going there, getting totally trashed and then screaming foul, dumb gringos.

Interesting that the news there gives a different account of what happened, we get the "poor" aussie sanitized version. Ticket paid for in HongKong in cash by ????? ...... hmmmm, even I see something wrong with that.

Now her family have involved the 60 minutes, paid a motza of dolares for their story ...... money that should be forfeited and be given to the "victims of crime" and this is the same family that were days ago asking for crowd funding, screaming poor and now off to Bogota. Personally I hope they leave her in gaol for a long long time.

These are the people who continually give Colombians a bad and undeserved rap. It is a beautiful country and great people.

My 2 bob's worth