Australian on Colombia drugs charges claims set-up

SYDNEY: A young Australian woman is facing 25 years in one of Colombia’s most squalid prisons on drug trafficking charges that her family on Monday claimed was a set-up.

Cassie Sainsbury, 22, was arrested on April 12 at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota on her way back to Adelaide with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine in her suitcase, her sister Khala said on an online fundraising site.

Her mother Lisa claimed her "naive" daughter told her in an hysterical phone call she was given several packages that she believed contained headphones she had bought as gifts, and put them in her luggage without checking.

She claimed she was set up by a Colombian man she befriended while on a working holiday.

"He had been helping her all week, taking her around and showing her places and just being a nice guy," her mother told KIIS FM commercial radio.

"Whether he was just using her as bait and there was another big shipment trying to go through ... so she would get caught, I just don’t know."

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed an Australian woman had been arrested in Colombia and it was providing assistance, without giving more details.

The family have begun an online campaign to help cover legal fees, which has raised Aus$2,600 in four days.

Sister Khala said she was being held at the overcrowded El Buen Pastor jail after being denied bail.

"Cassie is possibly facing 20-25 years in prison for a crime she did not commit. Our hearts break, because we know she is innocent," she said on the fundraising site.