As she was led in to custody on Wednesday afternoon, Melina Roberge was a far cry from the glamorous life she once pursued.
Dressed in a tidy white jacket, and with her hair pulled back, the Canadian woman, 24, appeared modest in comparison to the exploits she portrayed on social media.
The Instagram-obsessed jewellery store manager had accepted a free holiday on a cruise liner in July 2016 with the goal of spurring “envy” in mind.
Melina Roberge was jailed on Wednesday.
Photo: SuppliedBut the voyage of a lifetime has ended in up to eight years behind bars, with a non-parole period of four years and nine months, for Roberge, after 30kg of cocaine was discovered secreted in a suitcase in her cabin.
Though she didn’t take drugs herself, she was addicted to excess, and lured into the trade of drug importation by an older man, who she called her “sugar daddy,” by being plied with money and gifts.
In sentencing Roberge NSW District Court judge Kate Traill said the young woman was not only motivated by money but by the proposition of posting Instagram photos of herself in exotic locations.
“She wanted to be the envy of others. I doubt she is now,” Judge Traill said.
“This is a sad indictment on her relative age group in our society.
“It is sad they seek to attain such a vacuous existence, where how many ‘likes’ they receive is their currency.
“This highlights the negative influence of social media on young women.”
The genesis of Roberge’s downfall was meeting her sugar daddy in a Montreal restaurant in early 2015.
“The sugar daddy, it would seem, had a big impact on her life,” Judge Traill said.
He introduced her to a world of late-night parties and expensive dinners, showering freebies upon Roberge and her friends.
Convicted cocaine smuggler Melina Roberge.
Photo: Supplied"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. Sometimes there would be intimacy but not always. Sometimes I would accept money from them but not always," Roberge said in an affidavit before the court.
She began life as an escort, and in May 2016 she accepted a free trip to Morocco to work in that capacity. It was there she was approached to join the drug trade.
Though she initially refused, the sugar daddy coaxed her into a plot in which she and a group of others would pose as travellers on a seniors’ cruise departing the United Kingdom and bound for Australia.
The suitcase filled with cocaine, discovered by Border Force on board MS Sea Princess.
Photo: Australian Border Force“She was there to look pretty,” Judge Traill said.
Her payment: the cost of the globetrotting adventure and €4000 spending money.
The vessel, the Sea Princess made stops in Ireland, the US, Canada, New Zealand and South Americans countries, including Colombia and Peru, during the seven-week journey.
The dream holiday ran aground for the traffickers when they were arrested in Sydney on August 28, 2016, with border authorities discovering the major haul, worth up to $21 million on Australian streets.
Her companion Isabelle Lagace, 29, was jailed for at least 4½ years for transporting the substance, with a maximum term of 7½ years.
Melina Roberge and Isabelle Lagace embarked worldwide trip they documented on Instagram
Photo: SuppliedA man, Andrew Tamine, 63, has also pleaded guilty and is still to be sentenced.
A fourth member of their crew left the ship in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Roberge pleaded guilty in February to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled substance, and in swapping fashionable clothes for prison rags, has earned the job of ‘sweeper’ while in jail.
Judge Traill said Roberge was now committed to warning others of her failed path to social media fame.
“I hope she includes the pitfalls of seeking ‘likes’ on Instagram in the pursuit of self-worth,” she said.
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