Family tell of joy as Peru drug mule Reid to be freed
THE father of Peru drugs mule Melissa Reid said his ‘prayers had been answered’ as the 22-year-old prepares for an emotional return to Scotland.
A judge has said the cocaine smuggler can be freed from prison in Lima – where she has spent almost three years behind bars – and expelled from the South American country.
It is understood Reid will be a free woman once back home, with no arrangement being made for her to serve the remainder of her six-anda-half-year sentence here.
Her father Billy Reid, 55, announced his ‘joy and relief’ at the family home in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, he shares with his wife, Debbie. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are all relieved and delighted – although I don’t think it has fully sunk in yet.
‘We went to bed on Friday night unsure of what the future held for us as a family and woke to find out our prayers had been answered.
‘We would like to thank the Peruvian authorities for agreeing to this resolution and allowing our daughter to come home to us.’
Admitting his daughter’s sentence had ‘taken its toll on the whole family’, he said: ‘We now hope Melissa will be able to demonstrate that she is the asset we believe she can be.’
Mr Reid said that she ‘regrets the predicament she finds herself in, is apologetic for her actions and wants to show that she can be a credit to her family and make things right’.
He added: ‘She wants to prevent anyone else being sucked into her
‘Massive consequences’
situation and show that one wrong decision can have massive consequences.’
A Peruvian court spokesman confirmed yesterday that a judge had approved Reid’s expulsion.
She had fulfilled the legal requirements for the order to be made, including paying compensation of 10,000 Peruvian soles, or just over £2,000.
The court spokesman confirmed: ‘Callao’s Fourth Criminal Court under the authority of judge Ana Zapata Huertas has approved Melissa Reid’s application and agreed her expulsion from Peru to her country of origin.
‘According to the ruling, the inmate has fulfilled the requirements of Law 30219 in terms of having served a third of her sentence, being a first-time offender, not being exempt from the benefit of bail, as well as having worked inside prison and having paid fully compensation to the state.
The spokesman added: ‘In the final court hearing she showed repentance for the crime she had committed, as well as her intention to reinsert herself into society so she would avoid reoffending.’
Reid and accomplice Michaella McCollum from Dungannon, County Tyrone, were jailed after being caught with 24lb of cocaine in their suitcases at Lima International Airport in August 2013.
The pair, who had both been working on Ibiza before travelling to Peru, initially claimed they were forced into carrying the drugs, but later admitted drug trafficking and struck a plea bargain to secure a shorter sentence.
They became inseparable as they served their sentences until McCollum was freed on parole at the end of March.