OTTAWA: Three Canadian cruise ship passengers have been arrested for allegedly smuggling $23 million worth of cocaine onto a cruise ship docked in Australia.
Police found 209 pounds of cocaine packaged into the suitcases of 22-year-old Melina Roberge, 28-year-old Isabelle Lagace, and 63-year-old Andre Tamine, according to the Australian Federal Police.
Roberge and Lagace had been posting about their cruise on Instagram for the past seven weeks aboard the cruise ship The Sea Princess, which they boarded in England and stopped at ports in North America, the Caribbean, and South America, The Toronto Star reported.
Authorities were ready to search the ship once it docked in Sydney after a joint investigation with the Canadian Border Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security led authorities to the ship. Police had to search through 2,000 compartments before they found the cocaine, The Star reported.
All three face a potential sentence of life in prison, according to a statement from the Australian Federal Police. The Star reported that the drug bust is considered to be the largest seizure of drugs from a cruise ship in Australia. Police are still investigating where the three suspects were able to find the cocaine.
