Peru Two drug smuggler:
When she was caught smuggling cocaine out of Peru in 2013, Michaella McCollum was sent to a brutal jail. But since her release five years ago, she’s turned her life around…
“Prison made me a better person – but it’s taken years to forgive myself”
Mum-of-two Michaella McCollum seems calmly confident. But behind her glossy façade lies a shocking story of drugs, prison and survival. For Michaella is one of the infamous Peru Two, the then-20-year-old British girls caught smuggling cocaine worth £1.5million out of South America in 2013.
For months, Michaella and her accomplice, Melissa Reid, were plastered across national newspapers as their outrageous crime earned them notoriety. Eventually they were sentenced to six years in a brutal Peruvian jail, where they witnessed bloody attacks and feared for their lives.
But Michaella refused to crumble. Instead, she carved out a job in the prison salon, rose through the ranks and fought for her release. Now, she’s back in Northern Ireland with her toddler twins, Rafael and Rio, and studying business. She has also collaborated on a BBC documentary about her story, High: Confessions Of An Ibiza Drug Mule.
SO MUCH PAIN
Michaella, now 28, says, “Watching the documentary was hard, the pain is still raw. I wish none of it had happened, because it hurt my family, but then I wouldn’t be who I am today.
“Being in prison made me appreciate my home and family, and maybe I needed that wakeup call to become the best version of myself. Some people will find it hard to forgive me for what I did, and there are lots of days I find it hard to forgive myself. What I did caused my family so much pain. I’m not proud of it, but I know who I am now and I am proud of that person.”
Michaella’s troubles began when she flew to Ibiza in
2013 and started waitressing. Young and impressionable, she became embroiled in a world of parties and drugs, and when a dealer named Davey offered her £5,000 to import cocaine from Barcelona, she agreed.
WORRY
She says, “They made it out to not be a big deal. I’d have enough money to stay in Ibiza if I just did this simple thing.”
But it soon emerged Michaella was actually being sent to Peru, where she would meet another girl – Melissa Reid – and collect a package, before being cleared back through customs by a bribed official.
Michaella began to worry but thought it was too late to back out so followed the plan, meeting Melissa in Lima and collecting two suitcases laden with 31 packets of porridge, meticulously repackaged with cocaine. But they were stopped at customs and, in the documentary, dramatic footage shows officials slicing open a porridge packet, revealing white powder inside.
“The guy started shouting ‘coca’, then everyone was screaming,” says Michaella. “We just sat there in shock, crying.”
With handcuffed hands and feet, the girls were led to a dungeon prison and Michaella was allowed one short call to her mother, who feared she’d gone missing.
“It was the worst phone call,”
she says. “Mum said, ‘I thought you were dead,’ and I was so upset. My brother told me later that she was so overwhelmed with anxiety, she passed out. She was heartbroken.”
EARLY PAROLE
The girls initially insisted they’d been kidnapped and forced to traffic drugs, but the following month they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. They were soon moved to notorious maximum-security jail, Ancon Dos, where they were crammed into a cell with six other inmates, ate food crawling with maggots and drank brown water.
She says, “Prison was toxic and scary, people would scream and scream. One day, a girl leaned across the table and started attacking another girl – her blood and hair were everywhere. I could never shake off the feeling I might be next.
“We were on a female-only wing and inmates would openly have sex – there was no privacy. The prisoners were so open sexually too, and it added to the confusing, mad feel of the place. Mentally, I hit some real lows, but it would have been a lot harder without Melissa.”
Eventually, Michaella realised she needed to take charge of her situation. She says, “I was locked in a cell, but I realised I could control how I reacted to things. There was no point feeling sorry for myself and moping around, I needed to take action.”
Using a pocket dictionary, Michaella learned to speak Spanish and found paid work in the prison beauty salon, where she discovered a talent for cut and colours. She made friends too and was elected head prisoner for her block. And earning money gave her another advantage – she could fund an earlier parole hearing, and in March 2016, she was granted early release.
She says, “When they opened the door, I walked up this long road, and saw my family. My mum greeted me and we just hugged for 10 minutes. It was the biggest relief.”
Back home, Michaella focused on her future. She had Rafael and Rio in 2018, after a short relationship, and she’s now juggling being a single mum while studying for a business degree alongside a marketing job. She remains in touch with Melissa, who was released three months after her.
DREADFUL MISTAKE
She says, “When I first came home, it was difficult and I felt I didn’t fit in. But when I had my twins, I started to feel I belonged. I know they’ll always love me and, when the time comes, I’ll be honest about what happened.
“Melissa and I still text and talk on the phone – I have a lot of time for her, but our relationship is also a painful reminder of the past.”
She adds, “I believe prison made me a better person – but it’s taken years to forgive myself. I never intended to cause anybody pain, I just made a really stupid decision, and it hurt that people thought I was evil. If there’s one thing I’d like anyone to take from my story, it’s that you can screw up, but you don’t have to let that define the rest of your life. You can change who you are.
“I made a dreadful mistake but I’m now a better person that I would I would have been otherwise and I’m closer to my family than I was before..
“I’m a mum now and I’m going to get on with being the best one I can.”
● High: Confessions Of An Ibiza Drug Mule, Mon 5 July to Thu 8 July, 10.35pm, BBC1 Also available on BBC Three / iPlayer from 6am Sun 4 July
❛ IT WAS TOXIC AND SCARY – PEOPLE WOULD SCREAM AND SCREAM ❜