Cocaine mule gets a makeover (well she did work in the jail hair salon)
AFTER more than two years in the rough conditions of a Peruvian jail, you might expect Michaela McCollum Connolly to look less than her best.
But the drugs mule unveiled a glamorous look yesterday with flowing blonde hair, painted nails and an elegant jacket.
Her polished appearance is a dramatic transformation from when she was seen outside court in 2013 with dark hair scraped tightly into a bun and wearing a T-shirt, jeans and black leather jacket.
However, the 23-year- old’s perfectly styled hair may be little surprise to inmates at Ancon 2 prison, as she reportedly worked in its salon while serving her sentence there.
Looking fresh-faced in softer make-up and completing her outfit with smart black sandals, McCollum Connolly revealed the makeover in her first media interview since being released on parole
‘I’m not a bad
person’
last week. Along with fellow Briton Melissa Reid, she was caught at Lima Airport in 2013 trying to smuggle 24lb of cocaine worth £1.5million into Europe.
Nicknamed the Peru Two, McCollum Connolly, of Dungannon, County Tyrone, and Reid, of Glasgow, were each sentenced to six years and eight months after admitting trying to smuggle the Class A drug to Spain.
They claimed they had been kidnapped in Ibiza and forced to go on a drugs run by Colombian gangsters. But it emerged they had willingly agreed to carry the cocaine in return for cash after meeting the dealers on the Spanish island.
McCollum Connolly left jail on Thursday under laws for early prison release introduced in the South American country last year. Peruvian authorities agreed to let both women serve the remainder of their sentences in the UK. McCollum Connolly’s legal team is applying for her to be returned to Northern Ireland. Reid is still in Ancon 2 jail, as she is understood to be seeking a prison transfer to Scotland, rather than parole.
McCollum Connolly yesterday claimed her decision to smuggle drugs was ‘a moment of madness’ telling Irish broadcaster RTE: ‘I’m not a bad person. I want to demonstrate that I’m a good person.’ Of the potential consequences if the drugs had reached Europe, she added: ‘I could have caused a lot of harm to people.’
According to an inmate, McCollum Connolly was popular with other prisoners and learned Spanish. She and Reid had been held at Lima’s Virgen de Fatima jail but were moved to Ancon 2. It reportedly had extremely poor sanitation and up to 30 inmates sharing a cell. A source close to the pair said they worked in the prison’s garden, kitchen and salon.