‘I don’t want them being lost in life’: Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum says she hopes her twin sons will learn from her experiences as she reveals she is still in touch with ‘very happy’ fellow smuggler Melissa Reid
- Michaella McCollum tried to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine out of Peru
- She was jailed for six years for crimes along with fellow smuggler Melissa Reid
- Miss McCollum she said she hoped her sons would one day read her new book
- She added that she is still in touch with Miss Reid and that ‘she is very happy’
Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum has revealed her hopes that her new twin sons will learn from her experiences of being jailed for drug trafficking.
The 26-year-old was arrested in 2013 along with Melissa Reid for attempting to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine out of Peru.
Both claimed armed gangsters had forced them to carry the cocaine – when in fact they had willingly smuggled the drugs for a £5,000 payment.
Miss McCollum was jailed for six years for her crimes but is now living back in Northern Ireland, where she is bringing up two sons born last year.
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine about the release of her new book documenting her time in a Peruvian prison, she said she hoped her children would one day read her story.
Michaella McCollum (left), from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, was jailed in 2013 after she and Melissa Reid (right) tried to smuggle £1.5million worth of cocaine from Peru into Spain
‘I hope my children can learn from my experiences,’ she said. ‘I don’t want them taking drugs and being lost in life, and the book can be a guidelines for themselves.
‘I feel like I’m so detached from that person, I feel like people do judge me a lot. There was lots of opinions on me.
It was the harshest way I could have learned some lessons in life. You need hardship to learn, I’m so glad it happened and it pulled me out of a dark place.’
Speaking about bringing up her two sons without help from the children’s father, she added: ‘It’s not how I envisaged things.
Miss McCollum was jailed for six years for her crimes but is now living back in Northern Ireland, where she is bringing up two sons (pictured) born last year
‘They are my children and I want the best for them, I was prepared to do it on my own. I’m glad and sad.’
Miss McCollum said that does no longer sees her fellow smuggler Melissa Reid but that the pair were ‘still in touch’, adding: ‘She’s doing good and is very happy.’
The pair had met in Ibiza in 2013 where they were employed by a drug-dealing gang.
They were caught arriving at Lima airport and sentenced to six years and eight months inside a grim jail in the Peruvian capital.
However, they were released after serving three years, with McCollum returning to Northern Ireland in June 2016.
Miss Collum said: ‘At the time I thought £5,000 was a lot of money, that it was easy money, but now I know that £5,000 isn’t a lot of money.
‘The way I saw it I was doing something normal over here, back here drugs are a taboo subject but it felt like a normal thing to do over there.
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine about the release of her new book documenting her time in a Peruvian prison, she said she hoped her children would one day read her story
Miss McCollum said that does no longer sees her fellow smuggler Melissa Reid but that the pair were ‘still in touch’, adding: ‘She’s doing good and is very happy’
‘I think a couple of days before I got arrested I had this overwhelming feeling of fear.
‘I didn’t know anything about drug trafficking, but I didn’t really think about what would happen to me or my family, I was just going through the motions.
‘I think the worst thing is my family didn’t know where I was, the world was on their shoulders worrying what was going to happen to me, they went through that trauma.
‘If I do make money from it, and I was never driven to make money from this, but if I do my family would be my priority.’
WHO ARE THE PERU TWO?
Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly were arrested in August 2013 for attempting to smuggle £1.5million (€1.75 million) worth of cocaine out of Peru.
In June 2013, McCollum had travelled to Balearic island Ibiza to work as a dancer in a bar for that summer.
On July 31, Reid flew to South America while McCollum followed a day later.
Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly were arrested in August 2013 for attempting to smuggle £1.5million (€1.75 million) worth of cocaine out of Peru
The women, then aged just 19 and 20, carried the cocaine in food packages hidden in their luggage. Reid revealed that there was so much cocaine they were only able to fit in a few items of clothing to cover it
On August 6, McCollum was reported missing to the Police Service of Northern Ireland by her family, the same day as her arrest.
The duo were seized at Lima airport with 11kg of the Class A drug in their suitcases as they tried to check-in for a flight to Spain.
At the time of their arrest the women’s families had believed that they were in Ibiza doing bar work.
Following their arrest on August 6, the pair claimed they had been kidnapped by an armed gang and flown to Peru.
The women, who did not know each other beforehand, claim they were unwittingly introduced by friends to drugs runners, who threatened their families if they did not agree to smuggle cocaine.
The duo were sentenced to six years in prison but both served under half of that
Their story was described as ‘illogical’ and they later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, but claimed they were doing so to secure a more lenient sentence.
During their sentencing in December 2013 the women learned they had escaped the most severe 15-year penalty in return for pleading guilty and passing on information about the gang that supplied the drugs.
On December 17 2013 Reid and McCollum were sentenced to six years and eight months in jail at the notorious Santa Monica prison in Chorrillo.
While their original sentence was due to last until April 2020 both women served a reduced sentence.
McCollum was released on parole in March 2015 after serving less than half of her sentence but was required to stay in Peru until February 2016.
Reid returned to the UK in June 2016 after serving just under half of her six-year prison sentence.
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