EXCLUSIVE
Convicted drug mule Cassie Sainsbury is expected to be drawn into a fresh legal battle following the publication of her new tell-all memoir this month.
The 29-year-old - better known as Cocaine Cassie - has promised the book will offer a gruesome, uncensored account of her time locked away in a Colombian prison after being caught trying to smuggle 5.8kg of the illicit drug out of the country.
But legal experts warned the Commonwealth would likely move to recover any profits the debut author made from her autobiography under strict proceeds of crime provisions that prevent criminals from cashing in on their notoriety.
Sainsbury spent three years caged in with 1,800 other criminals at the notorious El Buren Pastor womens prison on the outskirts of Bogota after being arrested at the citys El Dorado airport in April 2017.
During that time, she claimed she became a prime target for other inmates and was repeatedly beaten, stabbed and raped.
Sainsbury was released in April 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic amid fears of overcrowding and served a further two years on parole before being deported.
The former brothel worker said she had spent the past four years wrestling with the trauma of the dark world she found herself in following her botched international smuggling run and was finally ready to tell her full story.
Promotional copy for her book claims that 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 the years.
Cassandra Sainsbury has revealed she is releasing a memoir about the three harrowing years she spent in a Colombian prison after being convicted of drug smuggling
The then-22-year-old was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota in 2017 with 5.8kgs of cocaine inside 18 pairs of boxed headphones
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 — to creating a life where a woman’s past does not define her future.
I am not "Cocaine Cassie". I am Cassie Sainsbury.
Ironically, given the final line of the promotion, the upcoming book is titled Cocaine Cassie, and is set to be released by publishing house New Holland on October 15.
The suggestion the one-time Adelaide fitness instructor is finally ready to reveal the truth about her sordid past has raised eyebrows given the numerous tell-all interviews she has already given to Nines 60 Minutes and Sevens Spotlight programs.
During those extensive appearances - which occurred both during her time in incarceration in Colombia and since her return to Australia - Sainsbury claimed she made the failed drug run after her family had their lives threatened.
In an infamous interview with then-60 Minutes reporter Liam Bartlett inside the walls of El Buren Pastor womens prison in 2017, she claimed she had all the evidence to clear her name locked away on her mobile phone - but was unable to remember her pass code.
Speaking with Sevens Ross Coulthart in 2022, she claimed she was recruited for the smuggling operation while working as a receptionist at a western Sydney brothel and had previously couriered illicit packages around Australia.
Cocaine Cassie Sainsbury, now 29, claims she is finally ready to tell the full truth about her time behind bars - despite already giving countless interviews about it
Sainsburys upcoming book is entitled Cocaine Cassie even though the convicted drug mule says she rails against the moniker
Cassies situation similar to Schapelles
Although it has long been speculated Sainsbury was paid for all her television interviews, as well as for her appearance on reality fitness show SAS Australia last year, no action has so far been taken against her.
The Australian Federal Police has previously demonstrated its determination to prevent high-profile criminals from profiting from their misdeeds.
The AFP launched legal action against Schapelle Corby in 2006 when she penned a similar memoir, My Story, while serving time in Balis Kerobokan prison for attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia.
Even though the copyright for the book had been assigned to Corbys sister, Mercedes, and co-author, Kathryn Bonella, the Commonwealth managed to seize almost $128,000 worth of payments made to the convicted drug mules family.
The AFP also raided Channel Sevens Sydney headquarters in February 2014 looking for evidence the network was intending to pay Corby for an upcoming interview following her release from prison.
Leading Sydney lawyer Richard Mitry said Sainsburys upcoming memoir would likely elicit the same response and could see her wind up back in court.
Under federal proceeds of crime legislation, someone who has committed an indictable offense - like drug trafficking - is prohibited from deriving whats defined as "literary proceeds" in relation to the offense, he told Daily Mail Australia.
Now, literary proceeds is, in effect, any financial benefit someone is getting from the commercial exploitation of their notoriety or, in other words, their fame as a result of their crimes - and that includes publishing books and giving interviews.
So Cassie Sainsburys situation is very similar to that of Schapelle Corby.
Fellow convicted drug mule Schapelle Corby was accused of trying to cash in on her criminal notoriety
The Commonwealth managed to confiscate $128,000 worth of payments made to Corbys family after she penned an autobiography while behind bars for drug smuggling in Bali
(Schapelle) was convicted of drug trafficking and wrote a book about it, and the Commonwealth - in that case, the AFP - succeeded in confiscating her royalties.
I cant see, quite frankly, why (Sainsbury) would be treated any differently.
The only key counter-consideration is if they are concerned it would cost taxpayers $100,000 in legal fees to potentially confiscate something like $50,000.
But ultimately I think it will come down to a matter of principle and a desire to send a strong message to deter anyone else from trying the same thing.
Neither Corby nor her publishers would be drawn on whether they had taken the proceeds of crime provisions into account when negotiating the book deal.
Under the legislation, it is not illegal for Sainsburys publishers - or commercial television networks - to pay her for her story; only for her to profit from selling it.
Australian Federal Police raided the Seven networks Sydney offices in February 2014 in search of evidence the channel was paying her for an upcoming tell-all
Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks had $10,000 worth of book sale payments frozen for over a decade under proceeds of crime laws before the Commonwealth dropped the case
The AFP has not confirmed whether it intends to freeze any payments Sainsbury receives in connection to the book.
David Hicks, who was captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 after training with Al Qaeda, was also subjected to proceeds of crime laws.
Hicks served six years in Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to Australia to complete a sentence imposed by a US military court for supporting terrorism.
In 2001, the Commonwealth announced it had commenced proceeds of crime action over Hickss autobiography Guantanamo: My Journey, which sold about 30,000 copies.
About $10,000 worth of book sale payments made to Hickss family were frozen but the Commonwealth dropped the case in 2012 after he claimed his conviction was unlawful.