"I feel like I would be endangered if I did mention his name," Roberge told the NSW District Court on Wednesday. Instead, she confirmed a name investigators suspected by referring to its presence in a document, which wasn't tendered in court. Roberge is soon to be sentenced for accompanying companions Isabelle Lagace and Andre Tamine on the seven-week Sea Princess cruise on which 30 kilograms of a substance, 24 kilograms of it pure cocaine, was secreted in a suitcase in her cabin. A submissions hearing before Judge Kate Traill today comes after Roberge entered an 11th-hour guilty plea to importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, days before a trial was to go ahead late last month. Melina Roberge has pleaded guilty of trying to smuggle cocaine into Australia on a cruise ship.

The Canadian trio, who were on the cruise liner with other members of the drug syndicate, had boarded the vessel in England and made stops in Ireland, the US, Canada, New Zealand and South America. The dream holiday ran aground for the traffickers when they were arrested in Sydney on August 28, 2016. Lagace, 29, was jailed for at least 4½ years for transporting the substance, with a maximum term of 7½ years. Tamine, 63, has also pleaded guilty and is still to be sentenced. Roberge spoke softly in the dock, wearing a wraparound dress, her brown hair wound tightly back in a bun.

An affidavit tendered in court told of how she became entangled in the smuggling operation, as well as her dealings with the "sugar daddy". The court heard Roberge had been ensnared by the lavish lifestyle offered by the man, who had paid for her to travel to Morocco in May 2016, where she worked as an escort. The three Canadian nationals were arrested after cocaine was discovered on a cruise ship that docked in Sydney. Credit:Department of Immigration and Border Protection She said she was again contacted about smuggling cocaine and was requested to stand in for another person. She agreed after being told her role was simply to accompany Lagace on their voyage to make their trip appear legitimate, despite knowing they would be smuggling drugs.

Roberge and Lagace were flown from Canada to Europe on business and first-class tickets and Roberge was handed €4000 spending money, which she said was mostly gone by the time they reached Sydney. She said she believed the drugs came on board during a stop in Peru. Roberge also used her opportunity in the stand to make a tearful apology to those her actions had affected. "I made decisions for myself without thinking about the consequences that it would have on other people. "I don't want to feel like I'm helping them with their addictions," she said.

Roberge denounced her former lifestyle as an Instagram model, saying "I was a stupid young woman governed by a superficial desire to take pictures of myself ... " Her mother, Chantelle Duguay, told the court her daughter was "quite naive sometimes". "I told her that a cruise like that you have to do something in return for someone to pay that big kind of money," she said. Crown prosecutor Thomas Muir said Roberge had been lured into a lifestyle she couldn't afford. "It's a lifestyle that she wants to enjoy. It's a lifestyle that she wants to promote," Mr Muir said.

He said Roberge played an "essential role" in the smuggling and that the court should be wary of her guilty plea after she initially maintained her innocence. "Ms Roberge knew exactly what she had been involved in and what she had done when she was arrested," he said. Mr Muir described Judge Traill's sentencing of Lagace as "extremely generous" and urged Roberge's punishment to at least match that of her companion. "The starting point may have been at least 10 years as a head sentence," he said. Defence lawyer Anvi Djemal said the court had avoided a costly trial by Roberge pleading guilty.

A short hearing to determine a sentencing date will be held on March 28. angusthompson@fairfaxmedia.com.au