Drug mule suspect in Peru to plead not guilty

A WOMAN arrested on suspicion of drug-smuggling in Peru will plead not guilty if charged, her solicitor has declared.

As he left Belfast for Lima, lawyer Peter Madden confirmed that model Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, would deny any allegations but warned that legal proceedings could be lengthy.

He said she was doing well in police custody but it was a difficult position for a “young girl” to be in.

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His client from Northern Ireland and Scotswoman Melissa Reid, who was 20 yesterday, are suspected by detectives of trying to leave the country with £1.5m of cocaine in their luggage.

They were detained while trying to board a flight from the Peruvian capital to Spain last week.

Mr Madden said: “She is saying she has done nothing wrong, that she is innocent and that as far as any offences are concerned, if she is charged she will be denying it.”

Mr Madden is due to attend a preliminary court hearing in Lima but wants to arrange local legal representation while she is questioned by police and intends to stay there at least a week.

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The women claimed they were victims of a violent gang who coerced them into carrying the drugs, and said they had resigned themselves to the likelihood that they face a lengthy prison term.

Police were waiting for a translator before officially questioning them, which is expected to happen in the next few days.

Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly have claimed they were given the 24lb of cocaine outside their hotel, the Hotel Colonial San Agustin, in the capital Lima, the day before they were due to fly back to Spain.

The pair, who deny drug trafficking, claimed they were ordered at gunpoint by Colombian gangsters to smuggle the drugs out of Lima.

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The two women had been working on the Spanish island of Ibiza, where they said they were snared by a drug cartel, robbed of their passports and phones and followed as they travelled on separate flights from Spain to Peru.

Once in South America, they said they were ordered to carry the cocaine hidden inside food packets.

Mr Madden said his client, who does not speak Spanish, found herself in a confusing situation.

Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly may be held pre-charge for up to 30 days and could then spend up to three years in prison before a trial.

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Mr Madden said: “It could be a long time. She sounded well; she is in a difficult position.”

He is one of Northern Ireland’s best-known lawyers and has been involved in a number of high-profile cases.

A former colleague of murdered human rights solicitor Pat Finucane who was shot dead by loyalists in north Belfast in 1989, he was involved in the legal representation of three Irish republicans who were arrested in 2001 in Colombia for allegedly training members of FARC. They eventually returned to Ireland in 2005.

Relatives of both women are travelling to Peru. Ms Reid’s father William is expected to be with her for her birthday today.

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Meanwhile, the British Consulate in Ibiza has suggested international action is needed to address the problem of drugs getting into the Mediterranean island.

Andrew Gwatkin, British Consul General for the Balearic Islands, said: “I think that the police are working extremely hard in Ibiza in very difficult circumstances. The vast majority (of drugs) are not produced in Ibiza, though, so international collaboration would be one of the positive and constructive ways we could tackle this problem.”

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