Drugs mule jailed in Peru will return to UK

Melissa Reid, the drugs mule jailed in Peru for cocaine smuggling in 2013, is to return to the UK “very soon” after Peruvian authorities agreed to expel her from the country, according to the British embassy in Lima.

The 22-year-old has been seeking to serve the remainder of her six-year sentence closer to home in Scotland. Reid, of Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, and Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5 million from Peru to Spain.

A spokesman for the British embassy said Reid had been “granted expulsion back to the UK”. McCollum, 23, was freed last month but must stay in Peru as part of her parole conditions.