Peru Drugs Bust: Pair Appear In Police Video

A video has emerged of a British and an Irish woman speaking to police shortly after they were arrested on suspicion of cocaine-smuggling in Peru.

The footage shows the two women answering questions shortly after they were held at an airport near the capital, Lima, last week.

Melissa Reid, 19, and Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, protested their innocence after police found 11kg (24.2lbs) of cocaine with an estimated street value of £1.5m in their luggage.

An official weighs and tests the drugs allegedly carried by the two women

The police footage also shows an officer examining a row of food bags, in which the drug was allegedly hidden.

Police accused the two of acting as "drug mules" to carry the contraband back to Europe.

Reid, from Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, told officers: "I was forced to take these bags in my luggage."

The two tourists were arrested at the airport near Lima

Asked if she knew the bags contained drugs, Reid replied: "I did not know that."

The father of Reid told Sky News Scotland Correspondent Jane Chilton that his family is devastated by the arrest.

William Reid said she was a beautiful and intelligent young woman who would never do anything like this of her own free will.

Melissa Reid travelled to Ibiza for the summer

Chilton tweeted: "He said he has spoken to her briefly. She's scared and the family are all distraught but at present don't know what is happening."

Archbishop of Lima Sean Walsh has visited the two women on remand and said "they were weepy and upset".

He told the Irish Independent: "They are embarrassed at how everything has affected their families back home. They are devastated by that but I assured them they need to stay strong.

Peru's capital Lima is on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America

"They believe they were set up and they will use that as a defence."

Ireland's former consul to Peru Michael Russell told Sky News: "There are various rumours or stories about what has happened.

"The main thing is not what happened but what the Peruvian courts believe. They are in very spartan conditions, not up to European standards.

Coca leaf is grown in remote areas of Peru for cocaine production

"They are supposed to be up in front of a judge tomorrow and then they will be transferred to a prison."

He told the Irish Times that prosecutors may push for a charge of drug trafficking, which could carry a sentence of between 15 and 25 years in prison.

He said that if the women were convicted of carrying half of the cocaine each, they would likely be ordered to serve around seven years in jail.

But he added that any appeal would probably see the allegations reduced to the "lesser charge".

The pair had lived in Ibiza and were returning to Majorca

The pair confirmed to police at the Lima airport that they had travelled to the South American country from Spain, and then on a Peruvian domestic flight to Cuzco.

They reportedly stayed four days in Cuzco, which is 350-miles south east of Lima, before returning to the capital.

Both women were detained the following day at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport.

Leftist guerrillas have funded their insurgency through the cocaine trade

Peruvian police said the two had been held and their luggage examined after a sniffer dog detected drugs at the Air Europa check-in counter.

Michaella McCollum Connolly worked as a hostess and model

Reid was allegedly carrying 18 foil packets containing 5.78kg of cocaine while McCollum Connolly was accused of carrying 5.81kg of the drug in 16 bags hidden in food sachets.

They pair said they were planning to travel to Madrid and then to the Mediterranean island of Majorca.

They had apparently spent several weeks before the Peru trip living in Ibiza.

Reid had posted dozens of Facebook photos of her time on the island, although her profile had not been updated since late July.

Belfast-born McCollum Connolly, who refers to herself as just Michaella McCollum in the video, had reportedly been looking for work as a nightclub dancer and hostess in Ibiza.

The apparent disappearance from Ibiza of McCollum Connolly had sparked an online campaign back home, backed by a number of Irish sports stars, to establish her whereabouts.

The Reid family home in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire

McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, was travelling on an Irish passport.

A representative for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin confirmed she was no longer considered missing and that consular assistance was being provided to her family.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is offering assistance to Reid while she is in custody.

The FCO said in a statement: "We can confirm the arrest of a British national in Peru on August 7. We are providing consular assistance."

Drug experts say Peru has almost certainly supplanted Colombia as the world's leading cocaine-producing country and the trade is used to fund a violent leftist insurgency.

:: On Monday, two bodies of suspected Shining Path rebel leaders were taken to Lima for DNA testing, after the pair died in a shootout with security forces a day earlier.

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