A Canadian woman was given seven-and-a-half years behind bars on Friday after she pleaded guilty to smuggling a large amount of cocaine into Australia on a cruise.

According to reports, Isabelle Lagace, 29, was traveling with two other Canadian nationals and together, they had over 90 kilograms (200 lbs) of cocaine with them. According to BBC news, 35 kilograms (77 lbs) of cocaine were found in a suitcase in the cabin shared by Lagace and her friend Melina Roberge on the Sea Princess cruise they had boarded in England in 2016. Police also found an additional 60 kilograms in the room of Andre Tamine, a 63-year-old from Quebec.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) estimated the cocaine had a street value of around $16 million USD. They were caught when drug-sniffing dogs were brought to the cabins of the three suspects. The AFP also believed that the three were working for an international drug-smuggling syndicate, ABC News Australia said.

In her hearing on Friday, Lagace told the court on Friday that her "error in judgment" would haunt her for the rest of her life, the Australian news outlet 9News reported. "It pains me to know my defining moments of womanhood will be spent in prison halfway around the world," she said. "I feel remorse and anger at myself about being involved with people who are part of a dirty, filthy drug trade." The Sydney Morning Herald reported that she was born in Quebec in 1988. She enrolled in a business and restaurant hospitality course in 2008 after graduating high school in 2005.

The report also said Lagace had left two "emotionally abusive relationships," and began working in a hospitality job, where she said, "a new work environment allowed me to borrow money from certain people for a new start in life."

Lagace had borrowed $20,000 CAD ($15,000 USD) from an unnamed source and had spent $15,000 CAD ($11,700 USD) on a new car and paying off other debts. She was left with $5000 CAD ($4000 USD) at the time of embarking on the cruise. She told the court she boarded the cruise when her loans were called in. "I was to provide my bag to another passenger who would insert what I understood to be an illegal substance," she said in her affidavit.

Judge Kate Traill found that Lagace was aware there were illicit drugs in the suitcase with her but added she was not satisfied about Lagace knowing the precise drug or the amount. There was "no evidence … of any fingerprints on the bag," she said.

However, Traill determined Lagace's role "was central to the importation" and that it was "pivotal and essential."

"I am satisfied the motive was profit, whether the forgiving of a loan or financial reward," she said in the judgment and rejected Lagace’s claims that "she had no choice" and that she had acted in fear of her safety or her family's.

"At the time she had a job and still had $5000 left [from the loan] … she made no attempt to pay that back … and she had an apartment and a supportive family," Traill said.

Lagace’s friend Roberge, who is also facing trial, regularly posted pictures of Lagace from the cruise, and claimed she did not know about the drugs.

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