2 female British drug mules jailed 6 years in Peru

Peru has sentenced two British women caught smuggling £1.5m of cocaine out of the country to six years and eight months in jail in Peru.

The two women are Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, both 20.

They had initially claimed during investigations that some Columbian gangster kidnapped them at a Spanish party that took place in Ibiza. They said the gangsters forced them at gunpoint to smuggle out the drugs.

But, as part of a plea deal, the two mules admitted to knowingly attempting to board a plane with the drugs.

Peruvian authorities arrested Reid and McCollum in August while attempting to board a plane at the Lima’s Jorge Chavez airport.

Prosecutors doubted their story and pressed them to confess who gave them the drugs found hidden in food packages in their luggage.

The women were arrested in 2014 and, by their sentencing, are expected to be freed in 2020.