The story of the "Peru Two"

Brut America

They tried to leave Peru with 24 pounds of cocaine in their luggage. Then, they said it was never theirs.   This is the story of the two 20-year-olds who became international drug dealers, the "Peru Two."

Transcript

00:00They attempted to get on a plane from Peru with 24 pounds of cocaine in their suitcases.

00:04This is a story of Melissa Reed and Michaela McCollum, also known as the Peru Two.

00:10I was forced to take these bags in my luggage.

00:14The public were obsessed with this story.

00:16There was a fascination around her bun.

00:20She was in fact getting up at one point.

00:23I was very young and naive.

00:24It's August 6, 2013, at the International Airport of Lima, the capital of Peru.

00:35Melissa Reed and Michaela McCollum, both 20 years old, are arrested by the Peruvian police.

00:41What's your name?

00:42Melissa Reed.

00:43What's your nationality?

00:45British.

00:47From what you could see on the TV, when it was shown on various news channels,

00:53this footage showed two young women who looked absolutely terrified

00:57of what they had gotten themselves into.

00:59What's your name?

01:00Michaela McCollum.

01:02Michaela.

01:03What's your nationality?

01:05Irish.

01:08Like other foreigners before them,

01:09Melissa and Michaela tried leaving Peru with a colossal amount of cocaine.

01:14Your note contains drugs.

01:19After walking past two sniffer dogs undetected,

01:23an officer decides to search their luggage.

01:26The agent finds 24 pounds of cocaine hidden in various food packages

01:30placed between their clothes.

01:33The quantity found between the two suitcases amounts to $1.8 million worth of cocaine.

01:41Michaela was just like any other young woman from Northern Ireland.

01:46She came from a rural background.

01:48She wanted to be a model.

01:50I know she had done some work dancing in clubs and things like that.

01:54And then she made the decision, like a lot of young women and men would do

01:59at that stage in their lives, is to go to Spain and work and party and have fun.

02:12Melissa Reed came from a really good background.

02:15She had a good family.

02:16Like Michaela, she was going out to Spain to have fun.

02:20Both Melissa and Michaela, you would never in a million years

02:23believe that they would turn into international drug smugglers.

02:28Michaela and Melissa both risk up to 15 years of prison.

02:32Prior to news breaking that the Peru 2 were arrested at Lima airport,

02:40we had been working on a story involving Michaela McCallum

02:43and the fact that she had gone missing in Ibiza.

02:47People were worried for her.

02:48Her family were making pleas to the media.

02:52They were putting out social media posts about trying to find her.

02:56And also celebrities and sports stars were helping in that search to find her.

03:02Melissa and Michaela claimed to Peruvian authorities

03:05that they were forced to transport the drugs on behalf of someone else.

03:09I was forced to take these bags in my luggage.

03:14These bags in my luggage.

03:16She was in fact kidnapped, held at gunpoint and forced by threat.

03:24At the time of her arrest, people here were fundraising for clothes,

03:31for necessities, for food to be sent to her within jail.

03:34During the trial that occurs a few days after their arrest,

03:46the judge refuses to believe their story.

04:05When Michaela was waitressing and picking up bits of work, bar work in Ibiza,

04:20she came into contact with an individual.

04:22And apparently Jake was the link to the underworld,

04:27the drugs underworld that brought Michaela and Melissa Reid into carrying these drugs.

04:35After initially claiming they were forced to smuggle drugs,

04:39it is revealed that they were supposed to earn €4,500 each for the job.

04:43Michaela and Melissa decide to plead guilty in the hopes of receiving a more lenient sentence.

04:48The public began to realize that Michaela and Melissa were more involved in this

04:54than they wanted people to believe.

04:56And the public support, most definitely in Northern Ireland,

05:00kind of went away for Michaela McCollum.

05:05Their story fascinates the British press, who names them the Peru Two.

05:17The public were obsessed with this story.

05:20There was a fascination around her bun, the Peru Two bun.

05:23It was very strange.

05:25I mean, we even had children dressing up as them for Halloween

05:29a couple of months after they were arrested.

05:31It was just absolutely crazy.

05:35Melissa and Michaela are eventually sentenced to six years and eight months in a Peruvian prison.

05:43I haven't been fed, haven't got anything to eat today.

05:45The conditions inside the holding cells are pretty grim.

05:51There were massive milestones that I had to, you know,

05:54experience my time in a horrible condition prison, you know, sleeping on the floor.

05:58And I've lost a lot of years of my life, you know, due to drugs.

06:02It was a really, really, really difficult time for both my family and I.

06:06I travelled out to Peru.

06:07We went to the jail and I was able to get inside and speak to her.

06:11The inside of the prison is controlled by the prisoners and the conditions were,

06:16I mean, the walls were cracked from earthquakes.

06:20There was insects just a world away from what a prison would be like here in the UK.

06:26After 10 months of detention, Michaela and Melissa transferred to a new high-security prison,

06:31known for being even tougher.

06:34This is one of Peru's most secure prisons.

06:37It is also one of the most notorious, some here call it Hell's Hacienda.

06:43In 2013, the prison has over 300 foreign inmates,

06:47including around 100 women, primarily incarcerated for cocaine trafficking.

06:52They said to me, they'll even try and fight for your innocence.

06:55There's no innocence.

07:00To me, it's like I'm living in the devil's house.

07:06After a little over two years in detention,

07:08Melissa and Michaela are finally released and deported from Peru to the United Kingdom.

07:14At such a young age, to be thrown into an international spotlight,

07:19to be thrown into an international spotlight and to become an international drug dealer,

07:24she has to be a very strong person to get through what she got through.

07:31Since her release, Melissa Reid has resumed a normal life in Scotland.

07:35As for Michaela McCallum, she has become an influencer

07:38and has even written a book to share her experience

07:40and raise awareness about the dangers of drugs.

07:44I feel like I've learned a lot of things from my time in Peru

07:47and I feel like I've grown a lot as a person

07:49and I feel a lot stronger, you know, since I've been released.

07:54I wouldn't trust people easy as I used to, you know, I'm not as naive or immature as I was

07:58and, you know, I've just learned to be a better person

08:00and, you know, be able to say no to situations that I might feel uncomfortable with.

08:13you

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