Cocaine trafficking in Australia: Mélina Roberge pleads guilty

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Mélina Roberge (left) and Isabelle Lagacé

VAT New

Thursday, 22 February, 2018 20:32

UPDATE
Thursday, 22-feb-2018 21:41

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Mélina Roberge, one of the two Quebec women arrested in Australia for smuggling cocaine, pleaded guilty Friday morning (local time) in Sydney, has reported VAT New.

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The woman, who was 24 at the time of his arrest, was, in particular, to face charges of attempted importation of a commercial quantity of cocaine into Australia.

The other two co-accused in this case were Isabelle Lagacé, 30 years old at the time of his arrest, and André Jorge Tamine, 64 years of age.

Lagacé had already pleaded guilty, while Tamine did the same earlier this week.

The three accused in this case had been arrested in August 2016 on board the cruise ship “Sea Princess” in the port of Sydney. They had to complete a luxurious cruise of two months around the world. The two women had shared several photos of them in idyllic landscapes, documenting their journey.

Dog trackers had discovered about 35 kg of cocaine inside a suitcase in the cabin that shared the two women, as well as 60 kg of the same drug in the luggage of André Jorge Tamine.

Mélina Roberge had initially pleaded ignorance, claiming to know nothing of the suitcase found in the cabin that she shared with Lagacé or its content. André Jorge Tamine’s also his innocence.

The australian authorities have indicated at the time that it was the largest seizure of drug introduced in Australia by a passenger of a ship or an aircraft.

Investigation of the emission “J. E.”

A recent investigation of the emission “J. E.” had revealed that the export of cocaine to Australia involving Mélina Roberge, Isabelle Lagacé and André Jorge Tamine, there were many tracks.

By focusing on the financial profiles of the trio, the journalists of “J. E.” in particular have discovered that many companies were likely to have been used as shell companies.

In addition, as of 2011, the organization seems to be served Lagacé to send funds to the four corners of the globe.

The three Quebecers would not have been that simple mules in this conspiracy alleged, carefully planned by a gang egyptian-syrian and the underworld of jewish Montreal, in collaboration with the infamous cartel mexican Sinaloa.

For his part, André Jorge Tamine will be back in court on 26 October for the recommendations on his sentence. It is punishable by life imprisonment.

About Isabelle Lagacé, she was sentenced last November to seven and a half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the same charge that Tamine.

Remains to be seen whether the australian courts will attempt to tackle the powerful gang of drug-traffickers, international in scope and which has allowed such an operation to see the light of day.

With the QMI Agency