'Missing' Tyrone Woman On Peru Drug Charges

A video has been released of two women currently accused of smuggling over £1.5m of cocaine in Peru.

The country's police force has released footage recorded shortly after 20-year-old Michaella McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, and 19-year-old Melissa Reid, from Lenzi near Glasgow, were arrested in Lima.

It is alleged the pair had attempted to smuggle 24lb of the illegal drug from Peru into Spain, where they had been working over the summer.

Miss McCollum Connolly and Miss Reid have been shown answering questions on camera in a video just released by Peruvian police.

Miss Reid is heard to say she was forced to take the bags in her luggage.

She is then asked if she knew the bags contained drugs, whereupon she replies: "I did not know that."

But Major Manuel Siclla, who is leading the investigation, says they already admitted their guilt to him.

"They have admitted it informally to me and officers at the airport who arrested them. They are okay but are obviously worried about their families and what the future holds for them," he said.

The two women were arrested last week trying to board an Air Europa flight from Lima to Madrid, before taking a second plane to their final destination in Majorca.

The pair have confirmed they had travelled to the South American country from Ibiza in Spain, where they had been living and working this summer.

Major Siclla said: "Like anyone else involved in drugs smuggling, they will be tried and face long prison sentences if convicted. We take this problem very seriously in Peru and courts are very strict about enforcing the law."

The news follows a Facebook appeal last week over Miss McCollum Connolly's whereabouts.

Her family said they had not had any contact with her for 12 days and were worried.

It is now thought the two women had been recruited as 'drug mules', with the promise of a holiday to Peru and £8,000 each in cash by drug traffickers in Ibiza.

(IT/CD)