Last-minute ticket tipped off drug cops

The purchase of a plane ticket — bought by an unknown party — triggered global drug authorities to zero in on Cassie Sainsbury.

Cassie Sainsbury with the cocaine found in her bag and Colonel Rodrigo Soler. Picture: Vanessa Hunter

The last-minute purchase of a plane ticket in Hong Kong to fly from Australia to Bogota via London triggered global drug authorities to zero in on South Australian bride-to-be Cassie Sainsbury.

Ms Sainsbury has pleaded her innocence.

Bogota airport’s head of narcotics, Colonel Rodrigo Soler, said the ticket, which was bought by an unknown party, was one of several red flags that caused North American agencies to alert Colombian police.

Ms Sainsbury was arrested leaving Bogota airport with more than 5kg of cocaine concealed in wrapped headphones she said were bought as gifts for her wedding party.

She faces an uncertain future in Colombia’s El Buen Pastor women’s prison, located behind a military school near an up-market residential suburb in central Bogota.

El Buen Pastor is a long way from Adelaide but it is not as squalid or overcrowded as has been portrayed. Similarly, the European style and clean lines of Bogota, set in a mountain-ringed valley with fertile green surrounds, would surprise many who may have an image of a less ordered, more chaotic South American metropolis.

Australian media has descended on Bogota after news of Ms Sainsbury’s detention became public on Sunday.

• INSIDE: El Buen Pastor women’s prison

She has pleaded her innocence but will remain in custody pending trial because under ­Colombian law the amount of drugs involved excludes her from bail or house arrest.

Ms Sainsbury’s family said the former personal trainer and one-time volunteer firefighter claims she was tricked into packing the drugs, unchecked, into her suitcase after the bulk headphone purchase was organised by a local man who had helped with sightseeing and translation during her short stay in Bogota.

Colonel Soler said Ms Sainsbury’s travel profile fitted a well-established pattern and had raised the attention of authorities in North America. However, Ms Sainsbury’s claim that she was duped is not impossible.

Colonel Soler is no longer ­involved in the Sainsbury investigation, but he said experience showed 10 per cent of people did not know what was happening (when they were arrested) but 90 per cent were involved.

Bogota airport’s drug squad has made 46 significant arrests this year across a wide range of­ ­nationalities and profiles.

Disabled, elderly and young are all fair game for drug syndicates who are being closely monitored by authorities working tirelessly to piece together the various drug cartels’ global distribution chains.

Sitting in his office, Colonel Soler flicks through a rogues gallery of miserable souls posing in front of piles of cocaine and heroin, wrapped and numbered for evidence.

X-ray images of people stuffed with condoms filled with drugs, wads of cocaine strapped to body parts, false-walled suitcases designed to carry bricks of powder drugs are all featured.

The latest addition to Colonel Soler’s hall of fame is Cassie Sainsbury, looking startled behind 18 wrapped and flagged parcels of coke.

Ms Sainsbury and her fiance Scott Broadbridge. Picture: Facebook

Colonel Soler says there are recurring themes.

“When someone leaves their country for Colombia without a strong justification — for instance if a person comes to Colombia for two or three days — that triggers an alert,” he said. “If a person doesn’t have much money, is young and travelling alone, that information is sent to us so we have that in our control points. Nearly always the captures we get are from this kind of intelligence.”

The screening starts at immigration control with standard profiling on attitude and appearance.

“Customs helps us with a bit of an interview: who bought your tickets? Where did you buy it? Who are you visiting? Who are you waiting for?,’’ Colonel Soler said.

“Sometimes they don’t know, sometimes their story changes 10 minutes later. Once customs gets this information, it is sent to anti-narcotics.

“Normally these people are victims because the chief of the drugs uses people who have debts or economic problems and it is ­really easy. Unfortunately, even though they do have these problems, they have committed an offence,” he said.

Ms Sainsbury has endured hellish conditions in El Buen Pastor jail. Picture: Roger Triana

Colonel Soler downplayed concerns raised by Ms Sainsbury’s lawyers in Australia that she could be in danger in jail because of her co-operation with police.

“When they are in prison here they are being watched,” he said. “In her case she may have some ­information but she won’t be catching the big kingpin because she is low down the chain.

“Will she have information who is the boss? No. But the collaborators with the landlord? Yes.

“She is not in danger in jail.”

Colonel Soler has a simple message for anyone thinking of smuggling drugs out of Colombia.

“There are other methods that you can find money,” he said. “All countries and communities have problems but nothing is easy.

“People paint the picture (that) it is very easy to smuggle drugs but it is not easy because of controls that exist and consequences that will really hurt your life.

“Along the chain of the cocaine production there are dead families and you could be destroying a whole community.

“If you are going to consume cocaine in your country there is a whole line of people who have ­suffered.”