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 worth £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."

Archbishop of Lima Sean Walsh visited the two 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," said Archbishop Walsh.

Melissa Reid travelled to Ibiza for the summer

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

Ex-Irish consul to Peru Michael Russell told Sky News: "There are various rumours or stories about what has happened.

"The main thing is not was happened but what the Peruvian courts believe.

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

"They are in very Spartan conditions, not up to European standards."

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

The pair both confirmed they had travelled to the South American country from Spain, and then on a Peruvian domestic flight to Cuzco.

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

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.

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.

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.

The pair had lived in Ibiza and were returning to Majorca

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, however her profile had not been updated since late July.

Leftist guerrillas have funded their insurgency through the cocaine trade

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.

Michaella McCollum Connolly worked as a hostess and model

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.

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.

The Reid family home in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire

:: 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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