‘Cocaine Cassie’ shares devastating revelation her friends abandoned her after prison

Convicted drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury, aka ‘Cocaine Cassie’, has revealed that her friends have abandoned her since returning home to Australia.

Sainsbury, 28, was caught in April 2017, trying to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine out of Columbia concealed in headphones and was locked up for three years.

She returned to her hometown of Adelaide in August for the first time in five years, bringing her new wife Tatiana with her.

The pair married one year ago after meeting in a Colombian nightclub.

Sainsbury said she has been trying to get her ‘life together’ but is facing a number of challenges.

Sainsbury with wife Tatiana, whom she married last march year after meeting in a Colombian nightclub in 2021

‘Trying to get a job and move forward. I quite often get told that I’m a murderer, that I’m quite conniving and cold and don’t show remorse,’ she told the Advertiser. 

‘People can’t show emotions because that’s a sign of weakness so I buried the sadness and I’d feel I pretty much got to a point where it would explode. I’m not this nasty person.’

Sainsbury was was sentenced to six years behind bars but was released from the El Buen ­Pastor women’s prison after three years.

The jail, in Colombia’s capital of Bogota, is for notorious for its harsh conditions and overcrowding.

Strict parole conditions meant she was forced to stay in the country for another 27 months.

It was during this time, in 2021, she met Tatiana, which Sainsbury had previously described as completely unexpected.

‘We’ve had our ups and downs, it hasn’t been an easy time getting employment and a lot of stress comes from moving countries,’ she said.

Sainsbury said she sadly doesn’t have friends in Australia and that her family were in ‘bits and pieces’. 

‘What got to me was I had friends writing letters supporting me and then on social media writing crap about me. It is what it is,’ she said. 

Sainsbury said she is proud of herself for getting through her difficult past

Sainsbury (pictured) spent three years six years inside El Buen ­Pastor women’s prison which is notorious for harsh conditions and overcrowding

But Sainsbury also said she is proud of herself for getting through her darkest moments.   

Recently, outrage erupted over Sainsbury being cast in the new season of Channel Seven reality show SAS Australia, which is set to air later this year.

She will star alongside Craig McLachlan and boxing champion Anthony Mundine, as well as Olympians Stephanie Rice, Peter Bol and Matthew Mitcham, and Balinese princess Lindy Klim.

For the first time on the series, the contestants will travel offshore to a secret base in the Middle East.

They will eat, sleep and train together in punishingly hot and arid conditions, with no allowances made for their celebrity status or gender.

Sainsbury will reportedly be paid close to a six-figure sum for her appearance on the show.