Colombian police ignoring mystery man who Cassie Sainsbury says tricked her into smuggling cocaine
THE man Cassie Sainsbury says tricked her into trying to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine is being ignored by Bogota police, who’ve made no attempt to identify him.
National
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BOGOTA police have not tried to identify the man Cassie Sainsbury says tricked her into trying to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine, ignoring the only clue she has offered in her defence.
CCTV footage of the man, known only as Angelo, is currently on a hard drive in the manager’s office of the downtown hotel where Sainsbury stayed from April 3 to April 11.
The well-dressed, dark-skinned man who appeared to be a local was Sainsbury’s only visitor, and was captured on film at least once approaching reception and asking to see her.
A spokesman for Colombia’s Attorney General last night confirmed no police had viewed the footage or contacted the hotel.
This is despite News Corp and other media outlets asking the department — known as the fiscalier, which includes prosecutors and investigators — to approach the hotel to release the images for the past three days.
RELATED: The missing pieces in Cassie Sainsbury’s Colombia cocaine case
Hotelier Ingrid Hernandez confirmed she still has the footage, which contains the only known image of the man.
“I will not release the images until I have some kind of official order from the police,” she said.
“I have still not heard from them.”
Sainsbury was arrested at El Dorado airport on April 11 after a tip off to local police by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, which had been tracking her movements in Bogota for as long as five days before she tried to leave.
She vehemently denies trying to smuggle drugs, telling police and the judge at her first court appearance she is innocent.
She has told her family in South Australia she thought she was bringing home 18 packages of headphones to give away at her upcoming wedding.
The former fitness instructor, who had money problems in her former hometown of Yorketown in South Australia, said she was given the plastic-wrapped packages by a man who she only knew as Angelo, who had befriended her during her stay in the Colombian capital.
Sainsbury has told her lawyers that while the man earned her trust, she only knew him by his first name and contacted him on a mobile phone number that is no longer in service.
Sainsbury’s fiance Scotty Broadbridge on Friday said he plans to visit her soon, along with her newly appointed Australian lawyer, Stephen Kenny, who represented Guantánamo Bay detainee David Hicks.
“I have no doubt that Cass is innocent of the charges,” Mr Bainbridge said at a press conference in Adelaide.
“Cass is the delight of my life. I know that she is not involved in the drug trade. I know that she was not deliberately taking drugs or carrying drugs.
“I know there are many unanswered questions in this case and I intend to work with the lawyers to get to the bottom of them.”
Originally published as Colombian police ignoring mystery man who Cassie Sainsbury says tricked her into smuggling cocaine
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