1. Melina Roberge is going to prison for smuggling cocaine on a cruise trip. The Canadian beauty, 24, was sentenced to at least four and a half years in prison for her role in an attempt to smuggle over 200 pounds of cocaine, worth over $16 million, in luggage on a cruise ship that was set to dock in Sydney, Australia, according to CBS News. Melina will serve a non-parole period of 4 years and 9 months in prison before she will likely be deported to Canada. Police with drug dogs found 35 kilograms of cocaine in Melina and her accomplice’s cabin on Aug. 28, 2016. Melina wrote in an affidavit that she was a “stupid young woman” for taking part in this shocking operation.
2. She documented the drug smuggling trip on Instagram. Melina and her accomplice, Isabelle Lagace, didn’t stay under the radar during the cruise. They became Instagram stars by posting incredible photos from the cruise ship MS Sea Princess as it stopped in 17 ports in 11 countries over 7 weeks, including Ireland, Bermuda, Colombia, Peru, and more. They were later known as “cocaine babes” after getting caught.
3. Melina’s accomplice was a former porn model. Melina and Isabelle, a former porn model, shared a cabin on the cruise. Isabelle was sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison in Nov. 2017. Like Melina, Isabelle will likely be deported after a non-parole period of 4 and a half years. Isabelle said in court that she took part in the smuggling trip to settle a debt in Canada, according to CBS News.
4. Her reason for taking part in the operation is shocking. “I was meant to just be there and look like I was on holiday and look like a cover for everyone else,” Melina said at the sentencing hearing, according to CNN.
5. Melina claims that another person involved, Andre Tamin, pimped her out and turned her into a drug mule. Melina and Andre, 63, began an “intimate relationship” while she worked as an escort for him, CBS News reports. Judge Kate Traill said that Melina was “there to look pretty” and act as a decoy to the drug dealing below deck. “Occasionally, when we would attend nightclubs together, he would introduce me to some of his friends, and if I was interested I would spend time with some of these men,” Melina said in an affidavit, according to news.com.au. “Sometimes there would be intimacy but not always. Sometimes I would accept money from them but not always.” Andre pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this year.