Cocaine Cassie wants to become a translator after jail release

She’s only been out of prison a week, but convicted drug smuggler Cassandra Sainsbury has her sights set on an exciting new career.

Australian drug smuggler Cassandra “Cocaine Cassie” Sainsbury has her sights on an exciting new career after being released early from her six-year jail sentence for attempting to smuggle 5.7kg of cocaine from in Colombia.

The former personal trainer from Adelaide, who was caught with bags of the drug concealed in headphones in her suitcase in 2017, was released on parole last Monday due to concerns of overcrowding in prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Just days into her new life on parole in the country’s capital, her former lawyer, Orlando Herran, said Sainsbury was already looking to the future and hoped to become a translator now she could speak Spanish and English.

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Cassandra Sainsbury, known as Cocaine Cassie, has told her ex-lawyer she wants to get a job while on parole in Colombia. Picture: Channel 9

“She wants to work and is in the process of getting the relevant paperwork, but as the offices are closed the process is difficult at the moment,” Mr Herran told news.com.au in Bogota.

“As she speaks both languages she could work as an English teacher, translator, or something of the sort.”

Her prison fiancee, Joli Pico, previously revealed Sainsbury was keen to get back to Australia but would have to stay in Colombia for another 27 months as part of her parole conditions.

Mr Herran, who is currently not Sainsbury’s lawyer but has met up with her since her release, explained her situation was legally complicated.

Sainsbury has to meet authorities for reviews at least every six months through her parole and is not allowed leave the country, but she also had an order to be “expelled from the country”, he said.

“She can’t currently travel as there are no flights,” Mr Herran said, adding “there is a possibility that they change this (so she can leave the country)”.

Sainsbury, seen here after being released early from her six-year prison sentence, cannot got to a bar during her 27-month parole. Picture: Channel 9

Until then Sainsbury is free to get on with a relatively normal life, though she does face some conditions.

“She cannot go to bars or visit other places deemed high risk,” Mr Herran said. He also explained that Sainsbury had to pay a fine, which was reduced, to leave the jail.

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The drug smuggler got engaged to her prison partner after nine months. Picture: Facebook

She's left Pico behind as she embarks on her new life in Colombia while on parole. Picture: Facebook

Sainsbury was released from El Buen Pastor prison on parole after serving two years, 11 months and 21 days of her sentence, leaving behind her Venezuelan partner who is serving time for theft.

It had been speculated the pair – who got engaged after a nine-month romance behind bars – were planning a reunion when Pico’s sentence ended soon, but a fellow inmate revealed the 29-year-old “still has a long sentence to see out”.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sainsbury told reporter Liam Bartlett their romance “wasn’t planned”.

“I’ve actually had experiences with women beforehand, but … I guess I never pictured myself in a proper relationship with a woman. But here I am,” she said.

During the interview, Sainsbury claimed she was raped by the drug mastermind who gave her the 5.8kg of cocaine she attempted to smuggle in a bid to pocket a $10,000 pay cheque.

RELATED: Cocaine Cassie did it because ‘I needed the money’

Sainsbury was arrested with 5.8kg of cocaine in her suitcase in April 2017. Picture: Police Handout

She was quickly dubbed ‘Cocaine Cassie’, seen here arriving at a Bogota court in Colombia in 2017. Picture: Ivan Valencia

Recounting the days leading up to the airport bust, Sainsbury said she checked in at a local hotel where she met a 39-year-old Brazilian drug dealer she referred to as “Angelo”.

In the days that followed, she said he took her to his apartment where Sainsbury claims her drink was spiked before she was sexually assaulted.

“He was saying that I had to be there with him, that I had to do what he wanted, that I didn’t have a choice,” she told Bartlett via Skype.

“And then it was, he gave me a drink. And it was almost like, like I felt like I was getting drunk, like it was like, I was getting tipsy.

“And from there, he basically, he forced my clothes off …”

The jail where Sainsbury spent almost three years of her sentence and met her now fiancee. Picture: Gary Ramage

Sainsbury broke down when she explained people thought she was “stupid” for not remembering key evidence that could have helped her, admitting she accepted the courier job because she “needed the money”.

“I know how it sounds because obviously I accepted to come into it for money. I needed money, but I wasn’t exactly like I came there thinking, ‘Yes I’m going to go and smuggle drugs’. It wasn’t like that,” she said.

“But when I got there, I knew something was weird, I knew something was off, and it was like I’m here, like I already had both feet stuck in the sand.”

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