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Peru Two sent to hellish desert jail in new blow to UK transfer hope
THE Peru Two’s hopes of a transfer to the UK have suffered a setback after they were transferred to a remote desert prison hours from Lima.
Drug mules Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly, who were caught with £1.5 million of cocaine, have been clinging to hopes that they might be sent home to serve the remainder of their nearly seven-year sentences.
But on Thursday the pair were moved from all-female Virgen de Fatima prison in Lima to Ancon 2, where prostitution and drug use are rife. The two 20-year-olds also face the prospect of being held in separate cells for the first time.
Reid’s father, Billy, from Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This has come as a real shock. It’s a really worrying time for the family, we’re still waiting to hear from Melissa.
‘Even if you were moved, you’d still think you’d be allowed a phone call back home to your family to tell them you’re OK. We haven’t heard anything since Wednesday. I got the feeling that the girls had integrated quite well at Virgen de Fatima but the situation they’re in now they’ll have to do that all again.’
The Scottish Prison Service last month confirmed it had received ‘a repatriation application’ from Peru on Reid’s behalf. But her family have yet to receive any update on the application. Mr Reid, 54, said: ‘We were a bit swept up in a wave of emotion thinking the transfer might happen fairly quickly but I think I’m back to reality in realising that it won’t happen as soon as we hoped. It’s a rollercoaster at the moment – really up and down.’
Ancon 2, three hours’ drive from the capital Lima, has almost 3,000 inmates. Around 325 are foreign and 100 are women.
French academic Chloé Constant, who studies female prison conditions in Peru, said the authorities seemed to be sending all foreign prisoners to Ancon. She added: ‘There are no trees or grass. The biggest problem is that it’s in the middle of the desert, so the water sometimes doesn’t work and phone lines cut out. Last time I visited there, the women were complaining that there were insects in the food – it’s not very nice.’
The Brits were each jailed in December for six years and eight months after trying to smuggle drugs in their suitcases.