PERU TWO MICHAELLA’S LIFE TO BE NEW TV DOC
The series has unique access to Michaella and family Six-part BBC series details Co Tyrone woman’s experience after drugs bust
DRUGS mule Michaella Mccollum is set to feature in a documentary series following the story of how she ended up in one of the world’s most notorious prisons.
The Co Tyrone native was arrested at Lima airport alongside Melissa Reid from Scotland after they were caught trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine out of Peru’s capital in August 2013.
The duo became known as the “Peru Two” and were sentenced to almost seven years in jail before being released on probation having served three years behind bars.
The new six-part series is entitled High and will tell the story of how Mccollum served her prison sentence and rose through the ranks of the prison eventually becoming known as the “Delegada”, the highest ranking prisoner in her wing, where she ran a pop-up beauty salon for fellow inmates.
Describing the new series, the BBC said: “The series has unique access to Michaella, her family and friends as well as others closely connected to the case and with a range of perspectives on the drugs trade.
“It reveals how a smalltown girl from rural Northern Ireland who didn’t even know where Peru was, let alone speak a word of Spanish, embarked on one of the riskiest crimes imaginable –and failed – only to rise up in the ranks of one of the most notorious prisons in the world before being released on probation after serving three years.”
Following her release, Mccollum returned home to Northern Ireland and became a mother to twin boys in 2018.
She released a book last year and was lambasted by critics for seemingly profiting from her criminal past.
In an interview on Good Morning Britain, host Piers Morgan told Mccollum: “I find it problematic that you’re making money out of this.
“Why should anyone buy a book that’s going to line your pocket, given that you took £1.5million of cocaine out of a country?” The new BBC series High is a Blast! Films production which will air on BBC Three although no transmission date has yet been set.
Michaella and Melissa Reid
MANCHESTER United stars have rallied round to help a sick toddler receive a new life-saving treatment.
Juan Mata, Scott Mctominay and Nemanja Matic have all recorded messages for Stan Dalton, two, who is fighting a rare leukaemia for a third time.
His parents Lee Dalton and Georgia Brecken, from Carlisle, Cumbria, were told in June nothing more could be done. A fundraising appeal was started by Carlisle United.
BBC SPOKESPERSON YESTERDAY