Wednesday 22 June 2016


The convicted smuggler has been freed less than halfway through her sentence and is flying from Lima to Europe with her father.
06:26, UK,Wednesday 22 June 2016

Melissa Reid is escorted by immigration officers before boarding a flight at Lima's airport in Callao
Convicted drug smuggler Melissa Reid has been deported from Peru and is on her way back to Scotland as a free woman.
The 22-year-old, along with Michaella McCollum, was jailed for more than six years in 2013 after she was found attempting to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5m from Peru to Spain.
There were frenzied scenes at an international airport in Lima, where Reid was escorted through the terminal by immigration officials.
She and her father are expected to board a plane to Amsterdam before catching a connecting flight to Glasgow.
Last month, a Peruvian court concluded that Reid, from Lenzie in East Dunbartonshire, had shown remorse for her crime.
Reid was released under a new Peruvian law which allows first-time drug offenders to walk free for good behaviour after completing a third of their sentence.
Michaella McCollum
Janeth Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Peru's prison system, said: "(Reid) served her time in prison according to the law and can now go to her country, free, to the streets."
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We continue to provide assistance to Melissa Reid and remain in contact with her family and local authorities."
McCollum, from Dungannon in Co Tyrone, was released earlier in the year - and has insisted in a television interview that she is a "good person".
The 23-year-old, who remains in Peru on parole, had told RTE One: "I could have potentially killed a lot of people, not directly but I could have caused a lot of harm to people.
An official weighs and tests the drugs allegedly carried by the two women
"I made a decision in a moment of madness. I'm not a bad person."
The pair had claimed they were forced to board a flight with 24lbs of cocaine in food packets hidden inside their luggage, but later pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Both were being held at the notorious Ancon 2 jail, where conditions are said to be cramped, with poor sanitation and toilet facilities.
Reid's father Billy has previously said the impact of his daughter's crime on his family had been "horrendous" and spoke in a video warning of the consequences of drug offences abroad.
About 90% of the 1,800 foreigners in Peru's prisons are awaiting trials for drug trafficking, or have been sentenced for such crimes.

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