“Prison is not nice. »
Isabelle Lagacé, 34, does not play the victim at all in the docuseries Cocaine, jail and likes that the Crave platform devotes to the luxurious cruise of 49 nights where she had fun, of course, but which finally landed her in an Australian penitentiary, where she languished for four and a half years for trafficking and importing drugs.
Yes, Isabelle Lagacé knew that this “free” trip around the world served “to move the powder”. In exchange for $100,000, she agreed to board the sea-princess to pay off his debts, restore his credit rating destroyed by bankruptcy and open a Vietnamese restaurant.
The three episodes of the series, offered Friday on Crave, show a lucid and direct young woman à la Anna Delvey, who does not try to attract pity and who expresses herself in a Franglais that a participant of the island of love. “We had a good time on the boat, don’t get me wrong”, she confides to the camera, sprinkling her sentences with “I was money focused”, “I let go” or “I ‘was like numb’.
And to use a vocabulary of reality TV, Isabelle Lagacé was a little tanner on the party, who worked in the “bottle service” in a restaurant-bar frequented by people from the underworld. When a client (whom she won’t name) offers her a two-month cruise, she knowingly ignores all the red flags and packs her suitcase.
Neither influencer, nor escort, nor porn actress, Isabelle Lagacé, then 28 years old, left her lover, who was leaving prison after being convicted of gangsterism, conspiracy and drug trafficking. We are in July 2016. Isabelle embarks on the sea-princess in Dover, in the south-east of England, in the company of an acquaintance, Mélina Roberge, 22, André Tamine, 64, a man named Michel Chiasson and two other men whose identity is not was never revealed.
The rest of the adventure fed the tabloids for months. Isabelle Lagacé and Mélina Roberge, aka “cocaine babes,” flooded Instagram with bikini photos, flirty selfies, white-sand beaches and colorful cocktails. Hashtag: live your “best life”.
What the “two sexiest criminals on the planet” didn’t know was that the average age of their ship’s passengers was 72. The two twenty-somethings from the South Shore stood out in this crowd of the third age and were already attracting suspicion: could they be sex workers?
Cocaine, jail and likes effectively sums up the case, but doesn’t push it any further. Who financed and orchestrated this operation? Why is nobody talking about the third defendant, André Tamine, who was stuck with over 60 kilos of cocaine in his cabin, compared to around thirty for the two girls?
Crave’s docuseries focuses on the rational and detached testimony of Isabelle Lagacé, to which are added those of her father Jacques (very touching), her best friend, her former boyfriend, her lawyer, her aunt and several reporters.
Mélina Roberge, who today works in a hair salon-boutique in Bromont, only appears in photos in the series. Isabelle Lagacé denied her “friend” Mélina when the latter pleaded not guilty to the heavy charges filed against her.
It was the “ultimate betrayal” – the ultimate betrayal – for Isabelle Lagacé who, for her part, admitted her guilt very quickly in the legal process.
Mélina Roberge, 29, told her version of this Hollywood ‘true crime’ story in the book Without filter, published in September. Basically, Mélina was sucked into this whirlwind by her luxury tastes and her desire to enter the life of an influencer. glamour. In relation to a “sugar dad”, she loved Instagram likes and Louis Vuitton handbags. Mélina Roberge also recognizes her mistakes and accepts all the blame.
You have undoubtedly seen Isabelle Lagacé, Sunday evening, in a particularly raised edition of Everybody talks about it at Radio Canada. The director general of the municipality of Saint-Sévère, Marie-Andrée Cadorette, stole the show with her aplomb, her humor and her liveliness. What a charming woman! There is clearly material to Bye Bye in this crazy and complex story of cows on the run, who resist all attempts at capture.
Guy A. Lepage’s set was teeming with interesting guests involved in the other discussions, including Xavier Dolan (and his expressive faces), Julie Le Breton, Patrick Hivon, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Josée di Stasio, Félix Auger-Aliassime ( in a pre-recorded interview), neurosurgeon Alexander Weil, Katherine Levac, Robert Frosi and Patrice Bernier. Listening rating of the latter Everybody talks about it : 942,000 viewers.
Two TVA issues again exceeded the one million mark, i.e. Masked singers (1,623,000) and Revolution (1,041,000). On Noovo, 565,000 followers ofDouble occupation heard Jay Du Temple address the finalists as “friends” at least 45 times. Thank you friends, good luck friends, good evening friends.