Peru drug mules jailed for six years and eight months

Two women who tried to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine out of Peru were sentenced to six years and eight months in jail.

16:39 18 December 2013

Last August, Michaella McCollum Connoly from Dungannon, Co Tyrone and Melissa Reid, from Glasgow, were arrested in the capital Lima for carrying 11kg of cocaine that they hid in food packets in their luggage. Following an investigation, police confirmed that the pair had been booked on to flights to Madrid and then to Majorca. Now, the two women have been found guilty of drug trafficking and were sentenced to six years and eight months in jail.

During the investigation, the two women claimed that they were forced to carry the drugs by an armed gang, which threatened them and their family. They added that they did not know each other until they were both kidnapped at gunpoint and ordered to travel to Majorca.

In the hope of getting lighter sentence, the duo pled guilty to drug trafficking charges in September.

However, anti-narcotics prosecutors have rejected the guilty pleas saying that the young women lied about being kidnapped and threatened.

But the judge must have believed their version of events as they have received the minimum sentence, as confirmed by their lawyer.