International cocaine smuggler Cassie Sainsbury returns to Adelaide

Cassie Sainsbury, who became known as "Cocaine Cassie", has returned to Adelaide for the first time after spending years locked up in a Colombian prison.

The former South Australian personal trainer served three years in El Buen Pastor women's prison after she was caught smuggling 5.8kgs of cocaine out of Bogota's international airport in April 2017.

Flying in on a Qantas jet from Sydney yesterday, Sainsbury landed in Adelaide with her wife Tatiana and a documentary crew who are reportedly filming every step of her hometown return.

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Sainsbury flew back into Australia last week for what is reportedly a brief visit from her current home base in Colombia.

She was arrested in 2017 after an airport X-ray machine detected 5.8kgs of cocaine stuffed inside 18 boxes of headphones.

During the investigation, she changed her version of events several times, including the claim she was forced to carry the cocaine and that drug dealers sent her photos of her family and said they would be targeted if she didn't comply.

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Sainsbury had faced up to 30 years inside a Bogota prison, but a plea deal was struck that reduced her sentence.

While inside, Sainsbury reportedly learnt to speak fluent Spanish while teaching prison guards English.