Adelaide’s Cassie Sainsbury releasing a new book, Cocaine Cassie, about her ordeal in a notorious Colombian prison

The convicted drug smuggler is turning the page with a new book about her ‘unimaginable’ ordeal in an infamous Colombian prison.

Convicted drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury has written a book about her “unimaginable” ordeal in an infamous South American prison.

The Adelaide personal trainer says Cocaine Cassie will allow readers to “walk in her shoes as a prisoner in one of the most notorious prisons out there”.

“I’ve been keeping a secret from you all… and I’m finally ready to share it. It’s taken me four years to write this and to be okay with sharing my experiences in a very dark world,” she captioned an Instagram post.

“This journey is a way to deal with my traumas and to be at peace with some pretty unimaginable things.”

Sainsbury spent three years behind bars after being caught with a suitcase containing 5.8kg of cocaine in Colombia in April 2017, just minutes before she was due to board a flight home to Australia.

Last year she revealed she was raped during her time in Colombia’s El Buen ­Pastor jail and was sure she wouldn’t make it out of there alive.

“I was almost sure that someone would kill me there,” she said as a contestant on Seven reality show, SAS Australia.

Cassie Sainsbury aka Cocaine Cassie will release a book. Picture: Instagram.

Cassie Sainsbury aka Cocaine Cassie (L) with her partner Tatiana. Picture: Instagram.

“It was such a horrible feeling that I gave up all hope. I had a lot of time to kind of process having been manipulated and tricked by someone I thought was my friend … having been raped.”

Sainsbury said she also saw fellow inmates committing suicide.

In a September 2023 interview with The Advertiser, Sainsbury revealed she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, as the physical and mental scars from her ordeal in a Colombian prison continued to haunt her.

“It hit me quite hard, it was completely unexpected. I thought I was okay and then … I was having nightmares, I was reliving everything I went through in the last seven years,” she said.

Cassie Sainsbury now lives back in Adelaide. Picture: Instagram.

Sainsbury has since launched her own online fitness program, Cassie Leigh Fitness, with help from Tatiana. Picture: Instagram.

It’s been two years since Sainsbury returned home to live in Adelaide alongside wife Tatiana, whom she met through mutual friends in a Colombian nightclub in 2021.

Sainsbury, who once owned a gym on the Yorke Peninsula, has since launched her own online fitness program, Cassie Leigh Fitness, with help from Tatiana.

The program helped Sainsbury drop a massive four dress sizes in five months.

Cocaine Cassie will be released on October 15.

Originally published as Adelaide’s Cassie Sainsbury releasing a new book, Cocaine Cassie, about her ordeal in a notorious Colombian prison