Video: Peru drugs arrest -Brit girls accused of smuggling cocaine face 25 years in jail

[Reilly]

Could you have a stroke?

[Prince Myshkin]

No, and I dont know why you have such concern for my well being. We talking about two mules whom have and going to waste their life... trying the easy way out.

 

Dont they see the warnings not to smuggle drugs... !

 

At least they will learn Spanish ... at least they will learn how bad drugs are and the risks people take and people lifes lost for those lines they had in their time..

 

War on drugs type are you?

Not one for innocent until proven guilty are you?

 

Nobody knows enough about this case. Your presumptions on their class are telling of the kind of person you are.

 

They may well be guilty, but the way you present yourself is shocking.

 

You're a right teste.

[bart]

No , however I would not go to Peru and smuggle drugs.

I would get someone to do it for me instead

[Prince Myshkin]

No , however I would not go to Peru and smuggle drugs.

I would get someone to do it for me instead

 

You're so wise.

[bart]

You're so wise.

 

or if I had a terminal illness. I would pick a country wheras the conditions of the Jail are not so bad.

[Prince Myshkin]

or if I had a terminal illness. I would pick a country wheras the conditions of the Jail are not so bad.

 

Are you Lory?

 

Can the mods check if this is a double account please?

[bart]

Are you Lory?

 

Can the mods check if this is a double account please?

 

No , why you ask this. She is a nice person but I think everyone has been horrible to her.

[busybeeburns]

 

Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer'

 

Peru 'drugs mules' Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum 'had a good offer'

 

A former boyfriend of Melissa Reid, one of two British women accused of smuggling cocaine in Peru, has said the pair were not coerced and had planned to do it themselves.

 

Shane Knowles, 37, described by the Daily Mail as "a heavily tattooed convicted fraudster", dated Reid over the summer while she was in Ibiza. Reid, from Lenzie in Scotland and McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon in Northern Ireland, were caught in Lima trying to fly to Spain with £1.5m worth of cocaine stashed in food packages in their luggage.

 

The women say they were forced to carry the drugs by a gang of drug dealers who threatened to harm their families if they refused. But Knowles said this was unlikely and the pair would have had plenty of chances to back out.

 

"I told them not to get involved," he said. "They were girls who hung around people with money in villas. And then somebody made them a good offer and they went and did it. Everyone is out there with no money, trying to make money and they obviously got an incentive to do it."

 

Knowles admitted that he did not know McCollum Connolly in person, but knew her circle of friends. The bodybuilder, who lost his left eye in 1999 when he was attacked in a gang-related fight, continued:

 

"They made a choice. There were plenty of chances they had to stop and walk away. They are going to have a hard time, aren’t they? Tough on them. All of these girls are just money hungry. [Melissa knew] another girl who did something naughty. The girl went and brought stuff back from Marbella. It gave Melissa the confidence to do this."

 

The women are being held in the Virgen de Fatima prison in Lima. It may take three years before their case comes to trial. It has emerged that Reid's father, William, wants the pair to plead guilty in order to get a shorter sentence. If they do so, they are expected to get about six years, or more than double that if they do not and are subsequently found guilty.

 

Reid, 53, said: "They were found to have drugs on them. They collected packages which transpired to be drugs. They are going to be guilty of that. If that’s the Peruvian law, regardless of the mitigating circumstances, then you are as well pleading guilty rather than defending that to the nth degree and be sitting there with 15 years that you’re trying to appeal and reduce. These girls are young. They may be living in cloud cuckoo land and thinking that magically next week they’re going to go free."

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/peru-drugs-mules-melissa-reid-and-michaella-mccollum-had-a-good-offer-8784827.html

[Prince Myshkin]

A convicted fraudster ex boyfriend?

Let's not question that source.

[busybeeburns]

She probably dumped him for a more successful drugster!

[busybeeburns]

Peru drugs: Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid admit charge

 

 

Peru drugs: Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid admit charge

 

Two women from the UK have pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 11kg (24lb) of cocaine out of Peru.

 

Michaella McCollum, of Dungannon, County Tyrone, and Melissa Reid, of Lenzie, near Glasgow, appeared before a judge at a closed hearing in Lima. The women, both 20, were caught with the drugs - said to be worth £1.5m - at Lima airport in August, and had said they were forced into carrying them. They will be jailed for at least six years and eight months, the court said.

 

On Tuesday, the pair were transported by van under armed guard from the prison where they are being held to Callao prison where the hearing took place. They were then returned to the women's prison where they are being held to await their sentencing hearing on 1 October.

 

A spokesman for the Peruvian court confirmed they had admitted the offences. It is understood the pleas were made in exchange for a shorter sentence. A court spokesman said: "They will automatically have a sixth off the minimum jail sentence of eight years and will be sentenced to six years and eight months in prison."

 

Lawyers for the pair said they would make no comment until after the young women were sentenced. McCollum's solicitor, Peter Madden, said: "I intend to travel to Lima next week to attend the sentencing hearing and after the sentence is handed down by the judge, it will be possible to make further comment."

 

McCollum and Reid had been stopped at Lima airport as they attempted to board a flight to Spain. They were found to be carrying cocaine hidden in food packets. The women had reportedly told the Peruvian authorities they were working in Ibiza and did not meet before they were both kidnapped at gunpoint and forced to travel to Majorca.

 

They claimed they were then sent to Peru and forced to carry the drugs in their luggage. It has been suggested the women may be able to serve part of their sentence in a UK prison.

 

The UK Foreign Office has confirmed there is a prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Peru. The Ministry of Justice added that the country receiving the prisoner would pay the cost of them serving their sentence.

 

Prisoners who want to serve their sentence in either Northern Ireland or Scotland have to apply to the prison service for their part of the UK. A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said McCollum would need to make representation initially to the Peruvian authorities.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24228723