Peru drug mule Michaella McCollum to be transferred to Northern Ireland jail
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Version 0 of 1. A convicted drug mule is to be transferred from a Peruvian prison to a jail in her native Northern Ireland, it has been confirmed. The Northern Ireland Prison Service said Michaella McCollum would be repatriated from the South American country, although the process could take several months. McCollum, 20, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, was jailed for six years and eight months in 2013 alongside Melissa Reid. The pair had admitted trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5m from Peru to Spain. Initially, the duo claimed a drug gang in southern Spain had threatened to kill their family members if they didn't smuggle the drugs across the Atlantic. However, they later admitted they were involved in the drug-smuggling plot. The women were caught with 11kg (24lb) of cocaine in their luggage in August 2013. They were stopped and searched at Lima's international airport, where the cocaine was found hidden inside packages of food. McCollum's family have been battling to have her transferred to a local jail since her conviction last December. Her solicitor, the Belfast-based lawyer Kevin Winters, had been lobbying the justice department in Northern Ireland as well as the Irish Republic's department of foreign affairs to have her repatriated. It is understood that in April Melissa Reid's family submitted a request to the Peruvian authorities to serve the rest of her jail term in Scotland. McCollum and Reid are being held at the Ancon 2 prison in Lima. The prison holds about 325 foreign prisoners, including more than 100 women, mainly serving time for drug charges. The inmates include Belfast woman Lillian Allen, who has vowed to look after McCollum and Reid. |