Cocaine Cassie Setting the record straight

On Wednesday, 12 April 2017, 22-year- old Cassandra Sainsbury, a personal trainer from Adelaide, South Australia was arrested at Eldorado International Airport in Bogota, Columbia. In her luggage she had been carrying 5.8 kilograms of cocaine. She was looking at up to 30 years incarceration for drug trafficking. It was to be the beginning of a harrowing ordeal of survival in El Buen Pasor – one of the world’ s most notorious prisons and the setting of a tale of violence and abuse as a young woman struggled to make sense of the madness all around her. At the centre of an international media circus, the woman who the world would come to know as “ Cocaine Cassie” survived beatings, stabbings and rape while her story played out in public, distorted by lies and exaggerations that played out over years. Now, in her own words, Cocaine Cassie sets the record straight in this raw and harrowing account of what it was really like. Bruised, battered and scarred she tells of how she was forced into becoming a drug mule. It is a story of pain and loss of hope for a future. But it is also a story of her rise to forgiveness and redemption –

On Wednesday, 12 April 2017, 22-year- old Cassandra Sainsbury, a personal trainer from Adelaide, South Australia was arrested at Eldorado International Airport in Bogota, Columbia. In her luggage she had been carrying 5.8 kilograms of cocaine. She was looking at up to 30 years incarceration for drug trafficking. It was to be the beginning of a harrowing ordeal of survival in El Buen Pasor – one of the world’ s most notorious prisons and the setting of a tale of violence and abuse as a young woman struggled to make sense of the madness all around her.

Introduction – What Would You Have Done? 7 Prelude 9 A Trip to Remember – November 2016 21 2 April 2017 23 3 April 2017 – Day One in Colombia 26 4 April 2017 – Day Two in Colombia 28 5 April 2017 – Day Three in Colombia 29 8 April 2017 – Day Six in Colombia 31 9 April 2017 – Day Seven in Colombia 32 12 April 2017 – Day Ten in Colombia 37 The Arrest – 12 April 2017 – 10:50pm 42 Detention Centre or Hell? – 13 April 2017 48 17 April 2017 – 5:30am 52 The Next Day 67 Movement? – 20 April 2017 69 Patio Five – Getting Settled – 20 to 22 April 2017 75 Signs of Danger or The Right Move? – 30 April 2017 90 Is This Goodbye? – 23 May 2017 98 What Else Could Go Wrong? – 28 May 2017 101 Patio Seven – 10 June 2017 109 Unsolicited Interview – 10 July 2017 118 Raqueta – 9 September 2017 121 The Unveiling of the Trials and Understanding the Sentencing – The First Day of the Trial – 26 July 2017 126 The Second Day of the Trial – The Verdict? – 9 August 2017 130 Shadows of the Legal Dance – 20 September 2017 133 The Illusion of Justice – 10 October 2017 137 A Surrender to Circumstances – 16 October 2017 140 Sentencing – 1 November 2017 143 Unforgiving Judge – 30 November 2017 147 The Birthday Raid – December 2017 – January 2018 150 Forbidden Connections – Navigating the Complexities – February 2018 154 The Unlikely Alliance – April 2018 158 A Punch from the Unexpected – April 2018 161 Cellmate or Hellmate? – June 2018 164 Shadows of Surveillance – June 2018 168 The Night of the Blade – July 2018 170 The Unforgiving Dentist’ s Chair – August 2018 172 The Games of Lenny’ s Vengeance – October 2018 176 Into the Depths of Patio Six – November 2018 179 It’ s Just Stress – 17 November 2018 181 A Ray of Opportunity – December 2018 184 A Prison Event – December 2018 186 Creating Opportunities – January 2019 188 A Brief Moment of Hope – April 2019 190 Prison Drink – July 2019 192 Shadows of Betrayal – August 2019 194 Kitchen Drama – September 2019 196 On My Way Out – December 2019 198 Regrets – December 2019 200 Marina – Another Challenge – January 2020 202 Covid Riot – March 2020 204 Crystal – The Bestie – October 2019 to March 2020 209 Prison Release – 27 March 2020 212 Nightmares in the Shadows – April 2020 220 Sweet or Sour Freedom – 10 April 2020 222 Finding Love – May 2021 227 The Unveiling Freedom – 7 June 2022 231 The Weight Lifted – August 2022 233 Home – 21 August 2022 236 Battlegrounds of Resilience – SAS Australia and Beyond – Late 2022 to 2023 238 Just Call Me Cassie – Present Day – Mid 2024 245 Acknowledgements 248