Original subtitles

[car horn honking]

[male reporter] Michaella McCollum, the local woman from Dungannon

who is suspected of cocaine trafficking in Peru

was arrested along with Melissa Reid from Scotland

as they tried to board a flight to Spain.

-[reporters clamoring] -[camera shutters click]

[Michaella] That's me.

[reporter] Michaella! How do you feel? How is it?

[Michaella] Michaella McCollum.

[female reporter] Caught with 11 kilograms of cocaine

hidden in their luggage.

[Michaella] Aged 20, I became one half of the "Peru Two."

-[woman] What is your nationality? -Irish.

[Michaella] And owner of the world's most infamous up-do.

[female reporter] They said they'd been forced to carry the drugs,

but those claims turned out to be lies.

[Michaella] You might wonder how

a regular kid from rural Northern Ireland could wind up here,

in a maximum-security prison in South America.

[female reporter] Michaella McCollum could be jailed for 15 years.

[Michaella] My family certainly did.

[man 1] It was like someone had died.

[Michaella] And the whole world seemed to have something to say about it.

-[reporter 1] Michaella McCollum. -[reporter 2] Michaella McCollum.

[man 2] If they're drug dealers, if they're trying to smuggle cocaine

worth 1.5 million pounds,

then they deserve all that they are getting.

[tense music]

[woman 1] Their family were hounded by the media.

[woman 2 on phone] It is what people are talking about.

[Michaella] One bad decision looks set to wreck my life.

[news reporter] The big question was why? What made them do it?

[woman 3] She obviously made the decision, but then what's behind it?

[Michaella] Well, this is the story of how I got myself into this mess.

-[yelling in Spanish] -[Michaella] And…

[female reporter] Michaella McCollum flew into Dublin,

out of prison and out of Peru.

[Michaella] …how I managed to get myself out of it.

[crewman] Camera speed, everyone ready? Okay, Michaella, let's go.

[music crescendos]

[deep breath]

[solemn piano music]

[Michaella] This is me.

Like butter wouldn't melt, right?

And here's me with my family, the youngest of 10.

All living in this wee terraced house in Aughnacloy.

Rural Northern Ireland in the 1990s.

[rooster crows]

[male reporter] The shooting of a teenager last night

brought the death toll in a week of terrorist savagery to eight.

[Michaella] Shooting and sheep,

pure shite, right?

But I wasn't any different from you,

and one day I decided to escape.

So I booked myself a ticket to Ibiza.

One way. And why not?

[announcer over PA] Please also make sure your belongings are securely stowed

either in the overhead lockers…

[Michaella] This is me.

Well, me in 2013.

I changed a lot since then,

and not just how I look.

Well, you can guess the next bit, right?

What I wouldn't give to stop the clock right there.

[tense music]

[jet engines whooshing]

[announcer over PA] Flight attendants be seated,

we're starting landing in about one minute, thank you.

[engines rumbling]

[insects chirping]

My family of course thought this was, like, insane.

I never went on holiday. I'd never left the UK.

I didn't know anybody there. I was going alone.

[jet engines whooshing]

[plane wheels screech]

I thought they were being extreme.

I thought, you know, nothing bad is gonna happen

like I'm going to a… like a paradise island.

Like what could happen bad out there?

[electronic dance music plays]

[crowd clamoring]

I didn't even unpack.

I just headed straight out to party.

[electronic dance music plays]

[people cheering, whistling]

You know I just felt so happy, and I kind of feel like

in the world sometimes, you know, it's very hard to feel like that.

[electronic dance music continues]

And obviously I'm surrounded by people that also feel really, really good.

[people cheering]

I can tell you one thing for certain.

You didn't get parties like this in Aughnacloy.

19-year-old me was having her mind blown.

[sniffs]

The nuns at church were not going to like this.

I started getting introduced to a lot of different people,

and people that I thought were really cool.

[indistinct chatter]

And I kind of felt like

I'm on a beautiful, sunny island and taking drugs,

and with a lot of, you know, dancing and music.

Oh, I was in love.

[distant whooping]

But of everyone I met in those first couple of weeks,

the most important was my new friend, Parry.

[interviewer] When did you first meet Michaella?

Can you describe her?

Drunk. [laughs]

[indistinct chatter]

["Ooh La La" by Goldfrapp plays]

[Parry] So Michaella turned up outside the club I was working at

with an Italian girl that she'd met on her flight.

She did, she was just a bit wobbly and, like, giddy,

and like she's obviously a really pretty girl.

[muffled laughter]

Really friendly and really smiley,

very approachable.

Just nice, good energy.

And we just got chatting and instantly, basically just clicked.

We became really good friends

and we were kind of inseparable from then.

Yeah, that was the sort of start of, like, our friendship.

["Ooh La La" by Goldfrapp continues playing]

[Parry] Yeah, we partied a lot.

We did, we were partying a lot.

♪ Made for love ♪

♪ I need la la la la la ♪

♪ I need ooo la la la la ♪

We worked together as well… dancing.

We were young. We just wanted to have fun, really.

[laughter]

We were in Ibiza, so.

It could be a bit messy sometimes, yeah.

We could get a bit wild.

Definitely spontaneous girl.

♪ Ooh la la la la ♪

["Ooh La La" by Goldfrapp fades]

[Michaella] For the tourists in Ibiza, there are lots of things to do.

["Drop the Pressure" by Mylo plays]

There are great restaurants, the hippy markets,

the Ibiza Museum of Contemporary Art.

I wasn't into any of that.

["Drop the Pressure" by Mylo plays]

Pretty soon I knew that if I wanted to stay longer,

I had to catch a grip and find myself a more regular source of income.

So I got myself a bar job.

But it turned out, it wasn't just drinks I was expected to serve.

Somebody put in a drinks order,

and they also asked me for drugs.

I told them I didn't know where to get them drugs,

and they were like, "oh, no, from behind the bar."

And I went to the bar and I said to the manager

that that guy asked me for drugs.

And he was like, "Oh, yeah, what did he want?"

And then he was like, "Oh, you just write it down with the drinks,"

and I was kind of like, "Oh, this is a bit weird, you know, but okay."

I just kind of went with it.

[mellow music]

And I guess I didn't feel guilty because I wasn't touching the drugs

or touching the money. I didn't really think it was that wrong.

[interviewer] What would your family have thought?

Oh, they would have been on a plane to Ibiza to take me home

like if they had of known.

I'd obviously crossed a massive line here.

[sniffing]

But in Ibiza, massive lines were everywhere,

and for me, the one between right and wrong

had gotten kind of blurred.

["This is the Weather" by Lost Horizons plays]

[Parry] You don't get paid a lot when you live out there.

Like less than minimum wage.

We were both a bit short…

but transport drugs?

[stutters] No.

["This is the Weather" by Lost Horizons continues playing]

[Parry] She obviously made the decision,

but then there's so many different factors…

to be taken into consideration.

Like, who was involved and who was manipulating her.

All these things that I don't think…

people look at. I think they just think,

"Oh, yeah, she smuggled drugs from one country to another,"

but they haven't really looked at what's behind it or how she got into it.

It was sort of like…

very quickly it all happened.

[dramatic music]

[sniffs]

[Michaella] When you look back at your life,

can you pinpoint the exact moment you fucked it all up?

Was this it?

I was too out of it to know what I was about, I guess.

[vehicle engine revving]

Then like in all good stories,

in walked a tall, dark, handsome stranger.

["Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust plays]

[interviewer] So, what was Davey like?

Describe him for me.

Um…

like he was quite cheeky, cocky kind of guy.

He was just really cool and relaxed and…

really easy going.

[engine rumbling]

And I quite liked that.

["Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust plays]

He didn't take drugs at all.

Almost all of the people I knew in Ibiza took drugs.

You would always kind of end up doing it,

even if you didn't have intentions of doing drugs.

["Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust plays]

So I thought it would be good to have a friend that was…

not doing that stuff so we could kind of, you know,

do normal things like going to the beach without being like

off your head on ket or something.

So that's kind of what draw me towards Davey at the beginning.

[laughter]

[Parry] Michaella, she wasn't short of male attention.

[Parry chuckles]

But from my point of view,

I couldn't really understand what Michaella liked about him.

[ominous music]

I just… just didn't get a good energy of him at all.

And, at that point,

she just… was very distant, and I think

I was worried about her a lot.

[vehicle honking]

It is as if they were kind of like pulling her away.

I don't know because…

it's funny at the time you don't really notice or think so much into it,

but looking back on the series of events and you start to piece it all together,

it becomes so much more obvious than what it was…

before, when you were in it.

[Michaella] Friends had said to me to kind of stay away from Davey…

because he's a drug dealer.

And I kind of thought, well,

we've been taking drugs all night, you know,

like how bad is he to be a drug dealer?

So I kind of didn't really take it serious,

but I probably should have now when I look back.

[sea water gushing]

But I was only young, I was on my first ever holiday abroad,

and all I was thinking about was having a good time.

["In For the Kill" by La Roux plays]

♪ We can fight our desires ♪

♪ But when we start making fires ♪

♪ We get ever so hot ♪

[Michaella] I kind of felt like,

I don't know it's kind of strange, but…

I remember feeling so happy.

♪ I'm going in for the kill ♪

♪ I'm doing it for a thrill ♪

You know, I kind of think maybe he became desperate

and kind of needed somebody to do a certain job,

and I was kind of there, available at that time.

♪ I'm going in ♪

[indistinct chattering]

[Parry] One day, she asked me to

go to a barbeque with this group of friends.

She said, "It would be great for you to meet them," blah, blah, blah

'cause we were really close,

so we kind of did share a lot of friendships.

[indistinct chatter]

[Parry] When I went to that barbeque, it was a very strange vibe.

Very shady. It didn't feel relaxed.

[ominous music]

I just couldn't really understand why she liked these people.

I felt a little bit on edge.

It was like there was something going on,

but you weren't really sure what, what it was.

["Pasilda" by Afro Mix plays]

[Michaella] And what was going on,

I was falling deeper into Davey.

He gave me some acid and asked me if I'd like to go on a trip.

["Pasilda" by Afro Mix plays]

An actual trip to Barcelona to pick something up for him.

I literally thought, like, a small package of, like,

you know I obviously thought it was drugs 'cause he sold drugs.

So I literally thought maybe it was, like, some ecstasy tablets.

And I definitely didn't think it was gonna be anything big.

["Pasilda" by Afro Mix continues playing]

[Parry] Michaella pulled me into the toilets,

and this guy, Davey,

had basically asked her

to transport cocaine.

[inaudible chatter]

[Michaella] And I kind of thought,

why not?

I mean, I was on acid. I thought this was an amazing adventure.

Like I was so playful. I just wanted to roll on the ground and laugh.

I just thought everything was so fun.

[Parry] He was offering her a large amount of money

and she was really, like,

not excited, but she was just very focused on the money.

Telling me all these things that she could do with the money,

and how it would help her and benefit her,

mortgage and all these various things.

[Michaella] And I kind of thought that would be amazing

if somebody gave me loads of money.

Not really serious. Like nothing at that moment in time was serious at all.

[Parry] I was a bit shocked, obviously.

I thought it was quite a massive thing to do,

but then I was also just a bit, like, "Yeah, oh… well. Wow, hey, well."

I didn't say it was a bad idea, but I just wasn't really thinking.

And I was just brushing it off, kind of.

I don't know. [scoffs]

Probably just really drunk.

["Pasilda" by Afro Mix continues playing]

[Parry] I didn't think it was real.

I thought it was just chat.

I didn't actually think she was going to go.

If somebody had asked her to do that at the start of the season,

she probably wouldn't have agreed to it.

[cheering and laughing]

[mellow music]

I didn't actually see her after that night.

The plans were to go there and then go to a nightclub.

But… that night,

Michaella was too fucked.

When I left her, she wasn't in a fit state to even go in the club.

Never mind going ahead with a decision like that.

That was the kind of last I'd seen her.

That was the last I'd seen her.

Last time I'd seen her.

[interviewer] When you look back,

do you wish you could have done more to stop her?

Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

[mutters] Ah, don't say that

'cause now I feel like maybe something that I could have done

to help her, stop her going.

I feel guilty now.

[breathes deeply]

Yeah.

["Voodoo People" by The Prodigy plays]

It was like 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning,

and Davey came running to me and was like,

"We need to go now, we need to go now."

["Voodoo People" by The Prodigy plays]

And I was like, "Why? Where are we going?"

I forgot what he was talking about. And he says,

"Oh, you need to go pick up the package now."

♪ Magic people, voodoo people ♪

And…

I just was a mess.

["Voodoo People" by The Prodigy continues playing]

I threw like maybe two bikinis and a pair of shorts,

like I had no clothes, really.

I just filled a big, huge suitcase with, like, four items.

He made it sound like a walk in the park.

He says, "You're gonna go on a trip,

and they're gonna really look after you,

and they're gonna give you loads of money,

and then you're gonna come back,

and you're gonna have the best time, you're gonna be loaded, like…"

He was just saying things like that.

I was excited about it.

I'd have enough money to stay in Ibiza if I just do this innocent thing.

The simple thing that they want me to do

for an awful lot of money.

♪ The Voodoo, who do What you don't dare do, people ♪

It was easy.

[song fades]

[Michaella] Outside in the sunlight, I was starting to come down.

[dramatic music]

Did I still know what I was doing?

I mean, I thought I did.

And he introduces me to some Spanish guy,

and anytime I kind of did say like,

say I was a little bit anxious or a little bit worried.

They basically kind of made this out to be not a big deal, really.

They had done this, like, many times.

They have people working for them, like, in airports,

and, like, there's no way that you will ever get caught.

You know, they kind of made it really reassuring

that everything was like 100 percent.

Then he hugs me and says goodbye.

[indistinct TV chatter]

[baby crying]

-[TV chatter] -[baby crying]

[Parry] I had text her the next morning 'cause I hadn't heard from her.

She said that she was at some Spanish guy's apartment,

and that she was going.

And I was like, going? Going where?

And that's when she said she was going to Barcelona and transporting the drugs.

I panicked.

"What were you… Like, are you going to be okay?"

I said I thought she was being a bit crazy.

[interviewer] Why did you think she was doing it?

Um…

For the money, still.

She'd made it clear that that's what it was about, the money.

[ominous music]

The money, of course, I thought that was appealing,

I didn't want to go home.

[interviewer] So how much money was it they said you were gonna get?

[Michaella] This guy, um, Matteo,

he tells me that when I come back to Ibiza,

he'd give me 5,000 pounds.

[tense music]

Was that it?

I thought it was more than that.

[tense music]

Five thousands…

That's… [scoffs]

…not a lot of money, like in the bigger scale,

but I suppose when you're out there at the time,

it could seem quite a substantial amount.

[inhales] But looking back, that's…

mental. [sighs deeply]

I just thought, you know, I could do a lot with that

and, you know, my family would never know,

and they'll just think that I'm doing great.

[man speaks in Spanish]

[Michaella] And sat in that apartment,

I thought all I had to do for it was a quick round trip

over to Barcelona on the Spanish mainland.

I didn't even have to leave the country.

Obviously that amount of money for what I really had to do was nothing.

Even though I was desperate not to go back there,

I still called home every single day.

But Matteo said using my phone

was a sure-fire way to get caught

and made me switch it for one of theirs.

[suspenseful music]

After they had my phone,

it turned out I wasn't going to Barcelona after all.

So he says, "you're gonna go to Majorca,

and you're gonna meet another girl, and she's gonna go with you.

And then yous are going to go to Lima together."

[inhales] And I was kind of going like,

"I'm gonna go to Lima? But I thought I was going to Barcelona."

And he was like, "No, no, no, you're going to Majorca,

and then you're gonna go to Lima."

[upbeat music]

I was a bit confused because I thought, oh, I thought they said Barcelona.

[interviewer] How was your geography?

Not great.

It was one of those classes, like,

that I just didn't really pay much attention to.

[interviewer] And when he said Lima,

what did you think he meant?

I have no idea. I didn't know where Lima was.

I didn't even ask where Lima was

'cause I didn't want to come across as stupid.

So I kind of just thought it was somewhere in Spain, close by.

I didn't think it was anywhere really that far.

Now that I think about it,

oh, gosh, that sounds so stupid you know. [chuckles]

["Around the World" by Daft Punk plays]

[jet engines whoosh]

Looking back there was no end to the things I didn't know.

[indistinct PA announcement]

But as I arrived in Majorca, I was still blissfully unaware.

[upbeat music]

[interviewer] Talk me through when you met Melissa.

[Michaella] Alone, I was just the Peru One,

but I was about to become part of the Peru Two.

This girl comes marching towards me and I see her marching towards me,

and I was kind of thinking, "Oh, gosh, who's this? What have I done?"

And then she comes over and she's, like, "Are you the girl?"

And I was, like, "What girl?" And she's, like, "Are you Matteo's girl?"

And I said, "Yes," and she's, like, "Okay, come with me."

[upbeat music fades]

And then she storms off,

and she was just kind of telling me about herself,

and we both knew Davey.

[ominous music]

[Michaella] Melissa was Scottish and just a few months younger than me.

I didn't know then that we were going to be together for a very long time.

The mule…

is, you know, the last person of the chain.

The last of the last of the last.

[dramatic music]

I was in Colombia, in Medellín, when I was young.

I know very well that

the last period of Escobar family.

They are my clients, really.

And I saw the recruiting of the mules,

I saw with my eyes.

[dramatic music continues]

The minimum chain is composed by

four subjects at least, at least.

In general, there is the cartel,

the transporter, the vector, the buyer and the pusher.

That's it.

Michaella or other person,

it's a simple, simple little number.

It's a simple little number, uh,

among a huge turnover,

That's it.

That's it.

[interviewer] And so roughly, what is that turnover?

Like how much is the cocaine business in Ibiza worth?

Ibiza works three, four months per year

very strongly.

But I can tell you that…

I think that we're talking about at least

300,000 to 400,000 euros per day.

From that to… to half a million.

And it's a… a serious business, really.

Not so, not so little.

[rap music playing]

[Michaella] Melissa took me back to the apartment in Majorca

where we had to stay,

and introduced me to Julio, our minder.

I mean, it felt weird

how different things had changed in 24 hours,

like, 24 hours before I was in that party,

and now 24 hours later, I'm with some girl I've just met,

ready to become a trafficker.

Despite having a perfectly good phone in his place

and two mobiles,

Julio was always going out to make phone calls

-from a payphone. -[telephone rings]

Obviously, this should have rang alarm bells,

but Melissa and I just took this as an opportunity

to have a nosey-around.

["Supernature" by Cerrone plays]

So he left, and me and Melissa thought this was great.

We were, like, being nosey,

and we were just looking through cupboards and stuff.

Then we opened one drawer.

[ominous music]

We were like, "Oh, shit!"

Like, "What the fuck did we just do?"

Like, "What did we just find?"

Who has guns in their house?

[tense music]

You know I kind of just… I don't know.

I think it kind of changed things from then onwards.

I kind of was, that's… I kind of started feeling a bit fearful

because obviously I've never seen a gun before,

and like, you know, who would have something like that?

So I think from that point,

I kind of started to feel a little bit on edge,

and then I kind of felt like, oh…

Julio's, you know, a lot bigger than I thought.

You know, like this is more of a bigger thing than I thought it is.

[suspenseful music]

[Michaella] I'd been on edge ever since seeing the guns,

but it would all be over soon.

In just a few hours time, I'd be safely on a plane

to wherever it was in Spain, Lima was.

I got dressed that morning and I came into the living room

and Julio was sitting there with the other guy who lived in the apartment,

and they were like clapping and like, "Oh, you look really good."

And making a big fuss and I kind of felt like,

you know, I'm going for my first day at school or something.

You know that kind of feeling. I was like this is really strange,

and they were kind of making a fuss, and then,

they started to pray with me, and…

like, I kind of felt like… then I kind of felt a wee bit nervous

'cause I was like, "What does he think is going to happen?"

And you know they had their eyes closed,

I didn't, 'cause I was in so much shock of what was happening.

I was just watching them and… [inhales]

…then I was kind of, like, okay, um…

I kind of, I don't know if I probably could have just walked out of there

even though I didn't have my passport or anything.

I could have probably just left the apartment, but I kind of felt like,

you know, everything would be fine.

You know, I'll just do what I have to do here and then I can go back home.

Like now, when I look back,

I'm just like, oh, I just wanted to shake myself.

Melissa had gone on ahead on an earlier flight.

Now it was my turn.

[indistinct chatter]

After three days of being watched by Julio,

I was glad to get out of there.

I just had to do a quick round trip and bring back their package,

and I was free.

Free and in the money.

[jet engines whooshing]

Then I've seen on the maps, you know, the screen in front of you that, um,

it showed the country that you're in and the country that you're travelling to.

[uneasy music]

I've seen, like, the huge arrow pointing towards, like,

you know, South America.

And I was like, "Oh, shit!"

I just felt sick to my stomach.

You know when you get that overwhelming feeling of anxiousness.

I felt panic.

"Oh, my God, I'm going to the jungle."

[ominous sting crescendos]

[ominous music]

[Michaella] I wanted to run. I was panicking.

I'd obviously never seen that amount of drugs before.

A lot of people were asking where she was.

[Michaella] I knew then that

you know that's… I'm fucked. Like, that's it, it's done.

[closing theme music]