Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Caught on video: British teenagers seen laughing and eating cake in Peru jail days after arrest for 'smuggling £1.5m of drugs'

Speaking for the first time about their ordeal, the two young British women held in Peru on suspicion of smuggling cocaine have revealed they are doing ‘okay’ - after 'smuggling for their lives'.
It comes as Melissa Reid's father claimed she was ordered at gunpoint to act as a ‘drug mule’ and forced to fly to South America with Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, after being kidnapped in Spain.
The pair, who had met in Ibiza a few weeks ago, spent their seventh night behind bars last night after being arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine out of Peru.
Prison life: Michaella McCollum Connolly (left), 20, and Melissa Reid (right), 19, face serious charges in Peru
Prison life: Michaella McCollum Connolly (left), 20, and Melissa Reid (right), 19, face serious charges in Peru
Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, and Melissa Reid, 19
British girls held in Peru on cocaine smuggling charges

And they said on Monday night - while eating cakes, smiling and giggling at the headquarters of Peru's anti-drugs police, where they are being held - that they have enough to eat, but not to drink.
Arrested: Miss Reid is pictured in a school leavers' photo aged 17. Her mother is preparing to fly to Lima
Arrested: Miss Reid is pictured in a school leavers' photo aged 17. Her mother is preparing to fly to Lima

Speaking at Dirandro Police Station, Miss Reid explained how a gang allegedly threatened their families and added that the pair had never even met before being sent to Peru by gangsters.
She told the Daily Mirror: ‘We were given no option. If we didn't do as we were told we would be dead.
'We were not smuggling for money, we were smuggling for our lives. We have no doubt they would have killed us both without hesitation if we didn't do as we were told.
‘Ever since I was arrested I have played out what has happened in my mind over and over again asking myself how could we have gotten out of it. But each time I think it wasn't even an option.’
Last night, as 19-year-old Miss Reid’s mother, Debra, prepared to fly from Scotland to the capital Lima, she revealed that the family had received a worrying message via Facebook from one of their daughter’s friends.

The woman said she felt ‘guilty’ for introducing Miss Reid to a man from Manchester who was apparently giving the pair drugs in Ibiza. She claimed the man supplied ‘drugs girls’ to gangs for a living.
News that a Briton may be involved luring travellers from the UK to act as drug couriers emerged as it was revealed British police are in Peru investigating the case.
An officer from the Serious Organised Crime Agency is understood to have visited detectives in Lima.
Last night Miss Reid’s parents insisted their daughter had only gone to Peru after being kidnapped by an armed gang who burst into her apartment.
Worried: William and Debra Reid, from Lenzie, near Glasgow, pictured yesterday, are the parents of British teenager Melissa Reid, 19, who is being held in a Peruvian prison on suspicion of drug smuggle
Worried: William and Debra Reid, from Lenzie, near Glasgow, pictured yesterday, are the parents of British teenager Melissa Reid, 19, who is being held in a Peruvian prison on suspicion of drug smuggle
Moment of truth: Dancer Michaella McCollum Connolly (left), 20, from Dungannon, County Tyrone, and former shop worker Melissa Reid (right), 19, from Lenzie near Glasgow, were arrested last Tuesday at Lima airport
Moment of truth: Dancer Michaella McCollum Connolly (left), 20, from Dungannon, County Tyrone, and former shop worker Melissa Reid (right), 19, from Lenzie near Glasgow, were arrested last Tuesday at Lima airport
Weighed in: Almost 6kg of cocaine
Hiding place: Bags of local food
Weighed in: Anti-drugs squad officers found nearly six kilos of cocaine (right) hidden in food products (left) in each of the women’s suitcases
Discovery: Food packages allegedly containing cocaine and found in the luggage of Michaella McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid lay on a table after the women were detained at the airport in Lima, Peru
Discovery: Food packages allegedly containing cocaine and found in the luggage of Michaella McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid lay on a table after the women were detained at the airport in Lima, Peru

During a tearful conversation with her parents on Monday, she told them: ‘They made me do it. They put a gun to my head.’
Her distraught father William , 53, said they believed another British woman managed to escape and hide from the men, but his daughter was forced to board a flight.
'My daughter would 100 per cent not have gone willingly. This is completely out of character. She was coerced into it'
William Reid, father of Melisa Reid
Speaking from his home in Lenzie, near Glasgow, he told the Mail: ‘From what her friends and Melissa have been able to tell us, she was introduced to a group of men who she socialised with and this escalated to her being forced to carry out this journey.
‘They came into her flat and told her to pack a bag. She didn’t know where she was going. She said she couldn’t get away because the men ushered her to the airport.
'They were watching. She was apparently given a BlackBerry to communicate with them without being tracked.’
He added: ‘My daughter would 100 per cent not have gone willingly. This is completely out of character. She was coerced into it.
Family: William Reid (pictured with daughter Melissa) said there is 'no way' she would willingly smuggle drugs
Family: William Reid (pictured with daughter Melissa) said there is 'no way' she would willingly smuggle drugs
Ms McCollum Connolly was at the centre of a Facebook and online social media appeal seeking information about her whereabouts over the past two weeks
Melissa Reid, 19, is being held in a maximum security prison in Lima along with Michaella McCollum Connolly
Held: British girls Melissa Reid, left, and Michaella McCollum Connolly,  right, have been arrested in Peru
Melissa Reid's parents believed she was still in Ibiza
Melissa, Reid, 19, from Lenzie near Glasgow, were arrested at Lima's Jorge Chavez international airport
Shock: The parents of Melissa Reid said they have yet to come to term's with their daughter's arrest
‘She is an intelligent, sensible girl and she has never been in trouble before. This is totally out of character.’
Mother-of-four Mrs Reid, 53, a business support administrator, said she assumed there had been an accident when the Foreign Office contacted her on  Friday – three days after her daughter’s arrest.
'We still cannot get our heads around how this has happened to our daughter'
Debra Reid, mother of Melisa Reid
She said: ‘When the Foreign Office said they were calling about Melissa, I thought she had had an accident.
‘So when they said she had been arrested in Peru, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I thought she was having a nice time in Ibiza.
‘We still cannot get our heads around how this has happened to our daughter.’
Mrs Reid said that on Friday, when her daughter turns 20, ‘is going to be a very hard day. Melissa was planning on going to a special nightclub for her birthday.

Michaella McCollum Connolly from Belfast left for Ibiza in June
Melissa Reid, 19, who has been arrested at Lima airport on suspicion of trying to smuggle £1million of cocaine out of Peru
Unsure future: Miss Reid (left) and Miss McCollum Connolly (right) are currently being held in jail in Lima, Peru
Yet to be formally quizzed: Miss McCollum Connolly (pictured), 20, has been arrested in Lima, Peru
Yet to be formally quizzed: Miss McCollum Connolly (pictured), 20, has been arrested in Lima, Peru
‘We can’t even think about her being in Peru for several years. We are not letting ourselves think that.
‘Her brother Liam is getting married in a castle in February and she was very excited about it. It will  be heartbreaking for us if she’s not there.’
Miss Reid and Miss McCollum Connolly, from Belfast, could face up to 25 years in prison if they are  convicted of drug smuggling.
Yesterday the family of Miss McCollum Connolly said they were also preparing to travel to Peru. The Reids spoke to their daughter on the phone for the first time after her arrest on Monday night, but were only allowed to talk for five minutes.
Miss Reid could not get through to her parents at first but left a voicemail in which she said: ‘Mum, it’s Melissa, can you please call me? I’m safe. I love you.’

Mr Reid said he had no major concerns about his daughter going to Spain because she had never been in trouble before.
‘The biggest problems we had ever had with our children was them having a couple too many drinks. Melissa was a good girl,’ he said. ‘She worked hard and went to bed at 9pm on weeknights.
'She went out at weekends, but she was just like most girls her age. I never worried about her taking drugs in Ibiza because it wasn’t on our radar. Her friends here say she never did them.’
Miss Reid stayed in regular contact with her parents and last wrote to them via Facebook the day before she was arrested to discuss which clothes her mother could clear out of her wardrobe.
Vanished: Miss McCollum Connolly was at the centre of a Facebook and online social media appeal after she went missing from Ibiza (file picture)
Vanished: Miss McCollum Connolly was at the centre of a Facebook and online social media appeal after she went missing from Ibiza (file picture)
Mrs Reid said: ‘They were just normal messages and that is what makes it so hard. There was no indication there was anything wrong.’
In her last messages, her mother tells her to keep her money safe  in her flat, to which Melissa says they have been storing it inside a panel for ‘the electrics’.
Mrs Reid asked her to be careful near the electrics, but her daughter cheerily replied: ‘Been fine so far! Xxxxxx.’
Her mother then sent a series of increasingly worried messages over the next three days when she did not hear anything back.
Mr Reid said: ‘We are just hoping now that we can get our daughter home safely.’
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK


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