McCollum to be transferred from Peru to jail in North

Convicted drug smuggler Michaella McCollum is set to be transferred from Peru to a jail in Northern Ireland.

McCollum, aged 21, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, and her accomplice Melissa Reid, aged 20, from Glasgow, were jailed last year for six years and eight months.

They admitted trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.8m from Peru to Spain.

A solicitor has described conditions in detention in the South American country as horrendous and Reid has also bid for repatriation to a Scottish prison.

The Government has been providing consular support to McCollum, an Irish citizen.

A letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “The Peruvian authorities have confirmed that they have accepted Michaella’s prison transfer request and have passed this to the UK National Offenders’ Management Service (NOMS) which co-ordinates prisoner transfers to the UK.

“In Ms McCollum’s case, NOMS liaises with the Northern Ireland Prison Service and with the Peruvian Prison Service on all aspects of the transfer.”

It could be months before she returns home as the logistics of the transfer will be complicated, the note to McCollum’s solicitor stated.

A Northern Ireland Prison Service spokesman said: “We don’t normally comment on individual cases. All transfer requests are however dealt with as expeditiously as possible.”

The pair were caught with the drugs at Lima airport on August 6 last year.

They were working on the Spanish party island of Ibiza when they claimed they were forced by Colombian drug lords who kidnapped them at gunpoint to board a flight with 24lb of cocaine in food packets hidden inside their luggage.

McCollum and Reid faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year prison term but struck a plea bargain to secure a shorter sentence.

They had previously been held at Lima’s Virgen de Fatima prison but were moved to the notorious Ancon 2 prison, where horrific conditions reportedly mean McCollum is crammed into a cell with 30 other prisoners.

The situation at the mixed prison, which is two-and-a-half hours from Lima, has previously been criticised by the Irishwoman’s lawyer as “appalling”.

Kevin Winters said sanitation and toilet facilities are extremely poor.