Cassie Sainsbury smiles and waves from Colombian jail as family leaves Adelaide to see her

ACCUSED drug mule Cassie Sainsbury has appeared outside her Colombian jail cell for the first time - along with a sign written in Spanish.

ACCUSED drug mule Cassie Sainsbury has appeared outside her cell for the first time, smiling and waving from behind the bars of a Colombian jail.

The 22-year-old from Adelaide looks upbeat in the video captured by Channel 7 from outside El Buen Pastor women’s prison, dressed in a pink zip-up sweater and blue jeans, and accompanied by fellow inmates.

Sainsbury is seen laughing and calling out. At one point a fellow inmate holds up a sign that reads, “Cassandra Pide Libertad Immediata”, or “Cassandra asks for freedom immediately.”

From behind makeshift washing lines hung on the bars, the personal trainer dances, points at the camera and waves cheerfully as she continues to await her fate. She cut a very different figure from the “permanently crying” and “psychologically affected” young woman her lawyer Orlando Herran described.

Colombia: First video of accused drug mule Cassie Sainsbury. 'Laughing, yelling out...asking for freedom' - @AshleeMullany in Bogota. #7News pic.twitter.com/XbjgKxzK7K

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) May 9, 2017

The footage was reportedly captured during a raid on the patio, in which guards used sniffer dogs to search for illegal mobile phones and drugs.

Another sign held up by an inmate read: “Lithuanian foreigner died by negligence."

Meanwhile, Sainbury’s sister Khala and mother Lisa Evans today set off from Adelaide airport to see her. It comes after news the family has signed an exclusive deal with Nine Network show 60 Minutes to sell her story for an unspecified sum, following their pleas for public donations on an online fundraising page.

They reportedly initially requested $1 million from the network, and the final figure is still said to be “eye-watering”.

Sainsbury waves to the camera as she awaits her fate. Picture: Nathan Edwards

The 22-year-old looked cheerful, after initial reports she could not stop crying and was refusing to leave her cell. Picture: Nathan Edwards

Sainsbury has been held in the prison for the past month after being caught with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine in her luggage at Bogota airport.

She denies she knew she had drugs and has told police, her lawyers and family she thought she was carrying home 18 plastic-wrapped bags of headphones she’d bought for a bargain price.

On Monday, it emerged Sainsbury had filled out paperwork requesting financial assistance from the Australian government to help pay her legal fees. Some of that money would probably also go to her Colombian lawyer Mr Herran, he said.

A picture of Sainsbury had already emerged from inside her cell, showing her wearing a floral print dress alongside an unidentified fellow female prisoner.

The accused drug smuggler was caught with 5.8kg of cocaine wrapped in black plastic at Bogota airport. Picture: Nathan Edwards

She says she believed the packages contained headphones she planned to give to her bridal party. Picture: Nathan Edwards

She is smiling in the photo and appears to be in good health, despite her family’s reported fears for her safety.

Her happy demeanour is in sharp contrast to the heart-stopping footage that emerged at the weekend of her body language quickly changing as she was stopped at the airport. Police had reportedly been trailing her for a week after a tip-off about a possible international drug ring from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

The young woman, whose family says she was on a “working holiday” had a plane ticket to London, Hong Kong and then Australia, bought by an unknown person in Hong Kong.

She at first reportedly refused to leave her jail cell, but is apparently slowly adjusting to life inside. A prison guard source told Nine she is co-operating better with guards now and willingly attends roll call at 7.30am each day.

She has been spending most of her time in her wing — known as “narco patio” because there are so many accused drug smugglers there. She is reportedly being given extra cigarettes and phone calls home.

A court date has still not been finalised.