Drug ‘boast’ backfired

DRUG mule Melissa Reid was caught smuggling £1.5-million (R31-million) of cocaine out of Peru after wanting a story to boast about to friends on the Ibiza party scene.

The 22-year-old from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, who was deported from Peru under an early release scheme, was caught trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine with 23-year-old Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, in August 2013.

McCollum was freed in March under new legislation but was required to remain on parole in Peru

The pair, nicknamed the “Peru Two”, were jailed for six years and eight months after pleading guilty.

Reid returned to Scotland on Wednesday after spending nearly three years in a string of hellish Peruvian prisons.

She told the Scottish Mail on Sunday how in 2013, aged 19, she had flown to Ibiza with a friend to spend the summer on the Spanish island. But the holiday turned into a spiral of taking hard drugs and clubbing that led her to a British woman acting as a recruitment agent for drug-smuggling gangsters.

She was offered ß5 000 (R83 900) to fly to Argentina, spend a few days sightseeing, and return to Europe with a package in her luggage.

“It wasn’t just about the money. I had saved up before I left Scotland so I had cash for rent,” she said.

Reid flew first to Majorca where she met McCollum for the first time.

After two nights in a house with a group of armed gangsters, she moved on to Madrid, where she was told she would be going to Peru instead.

“I just went along with it. The guys had guns but I was never threatened,” she said.

Reid was arrested as she tried to pass security at Lima airport on her return, with the cocaine packed in her suitcase.