Scots teen held in Peru over ‘£1.5m cocaine find’

A Scottish teenager is being held in Peru after allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.5 million out of the country.

Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly are being held in Peru. Pictures: Facebook

Scot Melissa Reid, was ­arrested in Lima on Tuesday, along with Michaella McCollum Connolly, 20, from Belfast, while trying to board a flight to Madrid.

The National Police of Peru said they found more than 24lb of cocaine – thought to be worth around £1.5m – hidden in food in the luggage of the two women.

They were stopped at the airport’s Air Europa counter.

Melissa’s father William, 66, spoke to a Sunday newspaper from their home near Lenzie in East Dunbartonshire. He said: “We don’t know anything, we haven’t been told anything.

“We don’t have any new information. We are not in a position to elaborate.

“We’re in the position where we are just trying to come to terms with it.”

Ms McCollum Connolly had been at the centre of a Facebook and online social media appeal, backed by Irish sports stars, seeking information about her whereabouts over the past two weeks.

Her distraught family said they had not heard anything from her in 12 days.

Diplomats have confirmed they are helping an Irish woman and a British woman arrested in Peru over alleged drug trafficking offences.

The Foreign Office in London said it was helping a British national.

”We are aware of the arrest of a British national in Peru this week and are providing consular assistance,” a spokeswoman said.

Ireland’s department of foreign affairs said it was also providing consular assistance to the family of an Irish woman being held in Peru on suspicion of drug trafficking offences.

Ms McCollum Connolly holds an Irish passport. The photography student, originally from County Monaghan, had gone to San Antonio, in Ibiza, in June on a working holiday.

She was looking for work as a dancer and nightclub hostess.

Her family said she usually phoned every two to three days.

Ms McCollum Connolly and Ms Reid were detained at the Jorge Chavez International airport as they tried to board a flight to Madrid, which was travelling on to Palma Mallorca, police in Peru said.