Cassandra “Cocaine Cassie” Sainsbury, who gained notoriety for drug smuggling, has announced her ambition to pursue a law degree in Colombia. Her goal is to assist others who find themselves in situations similar to hers.

Sainsbury’s past includes a three-year stint in Bogota’s El Buen Pastor prison, following her 2017 arrest. She was caught attempting to transport 5.8 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Australia, with the illicit substance cleverly concealed in her luggage.

At the age of 22, she initially expressed shock at the discovery of the 18 cocaine bundles. However, she later confessed to her awareness of the drugs and chose to plead guilty.

Despite her admission, Sainsbury claimed she was tricked into the smuggling operation. Unfortunately, she couldn’t retrieve alleged evidence from her phone due to forgetting the device’s passcode.

During a recent interview with Adelaide’s FIVEAA radio, Sainsbury, now 30, expressed her desire to return to Colombia to study law. She is motivated to aid individuals entangled in drug trafficking predicaments.

Although she already holds a degree in criminology from Colombia, it lacks recognition in Australia. Similarly, any law degree she might obtain in Colombia would not be acknowledged back home.

‘I do plan to study law over there,’ she said. ‘I would want to be the lawyer that I didn’t have over there.

‘I will go back. Part of me still wants to come across a case which is very similar to mine and have a legal right to pursue it.’

Cassandra Sainsbury (pictured with her wife Tatiana) plans to return to Colombia to study law

Sainsbury became known as Cocaine Cassie when she was caught trying to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine from Colombia to Australia (pictured after her arrest in 2017)

Her surprising career shift comes just months after she was accused of leaving a customer with welts following a procedure at her own Adelaide beauty clinic, Luxe Body Contour.

The customer said she went to the clinic on the recommendation of a friend, but had no idea it was run by the convicted drug mule until she arrived for her appointment.

The woman claimed in August that the welts were so bad that she took antibiotics to stave off infection.

Sainsbury told The Advertiser that she stopped the treatment when she noticed the woman’s skin was not reacting normally, although she claimed the customer wanted her to continue.

‘We are talking about a treatment that has been performed on many clients and not once had an issue,’ she said.

‘However all treatments with heat can carry a risk unfortunately.’ 

She said she was fully qualified to perform the treatment, the client had signed documentation acknowledging potential skin sensitivity risks, and that no official complaint has been lodged with any regulatory authority.

Sainsbury was a personal trainer who owned an Adelaide gym for six months before her doomed Colombian jaunt, and also had a brief stint in a brothel in Sydney’s west.

Sainsbury (pictured in Colombia following her arrest in 2017) now runs a beauty business in Adelaide, where she lives with her wife

Sainsbury was a personal trainer who owned a gym prior to her drug smuggling, but it shut down after six months

Sainsbury’s book, Cocaine Cassie: Setting the Record Straight, was released in 2024 (pictured)

She has long claimed debt associated with her failed gym was the beginning of her spiral into sex work and drug trafficking, but has been criticised for inconsistencies in her story.

Following the release of her memoir, Cocaine Cassie: Setting the Record Straight, Sainsbury was blasted by Media Watch for apparently introducing key offenders in her book who had never been mentioned in her 17 previous interviews.

The book featured a woman named Wendy who had never previously been mentioned, with all other key figures in her story having been male up to that point. 

She had also previously said her handler, Joshua, introduced her to running drugs in Sydney and then sent her to Colombia – describing him to 60 Minutes as ‘tall but chubby, green eyes, brown hair’.

Two years later, on Channel 7’s Spotlight show, Joshua was suddenly ‘muscly, tanned, clear eyes (and) bald’.

There was also no mention of a drug lord named Angelo who she previously told media threatened to kill her family if she refused to traffic the drugs, but she did mention another man named Carlos who appeared to have the same role.

Sainsbury was sentenced to six years in jail, but was released in 2020 after serving two years, 11 months and 21 days.

She then spent 27 months on parole in Colombia, during which time she started teaching English as a second language and met her future wife, Tatiana.

The couple now live in Adelaide.