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McCollum & Reid jailed for over six years on drug smuggling charges

Irish woman Michaella McCollum-Connolly and Melissa Reid from Scotland have been sentenced to six...
Newstalk
Newstalk

09.11 17 Dec 2013


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McCollum & Reid jailed for...

McCollum & Reid jailed for over six years on drug smuggling charges

Newstalk
Newstalk

09.11 17 Dec 2013


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Irish woman Michaella McCollum-Connolly and Melissa Reid from Scotland have been sentenced to six years and eight months each in prison by a court in Peru, after pleading guilty to drug smuggling charges.

Two women tried to smuggle over €1.5 million of cocaine out of Peru.

McCollum-Connolly, from Dungannon in Co. Tyrone and Melissa Reid, from Glasgow, were sentenced in a Lima court this afternoon.

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The pair (both 20) were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in August carrying 11 kilogrammes (24lbs) of cocaine hidden in food packets in their luggage.

The women were en-route to Spain and originally claimed they were forced to carry the drugs by an armed gang which threatened them and their family.

Connolly, who has also lived in Belfast, and Reid agreed to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in September in the hope of getting a lighter sentence.

Anti-narcotics prosecutors rejected the pair's guilty pleas, saying the women had only admitted partial guilt for their actions.

They said the young women had made up a story about being kidnapped and threatened into attempting to smuggle the drugs out of Peru on August 6th.

The sentence they received is thought to reflect whether the judges believed the prosecutors account of their behaviour.

It is understood the two will serve at least two years in prison in Peru.

A total of 248 "drug mules" were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in 2012, with nearly 1,600 kilogrammes of illegal drugs confiscated.

The UN says Peru has overtaken Colombia as the world's largest grower of coca, the raw material of cocaine.


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