Original subtitles

[vehicle honking]

[female reporter] The County Tyrone woman

accused of drug trafficking in South America

said they had been forced at gunpoint

by an international gang.

-[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.

[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?

[Parry] 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]

[announcement in Spanish]

[Michaella] I got on this plane thinking I was making a quick round trip from Ibiza

to pick up Matteo's drugs from somewhere on the Spanish mainland.

["Fire" by Lizzy Mercier Descloux plays]

Sure, we've all made them decisions when we're wasted, right?

But this was in a different fucking league.

[jet engines whooshing]

11 hours and 15 minutes later,

I was landing in Lima…

[plane tires screech]

…which by now I knew was in Peru.

In South of fucking America.

[llama squeals]

["Fire" by Lizzy Mercier Descloux plays]

When I got off the plane,

I just was just so annoyed about the whole situation.

Nobody understood what I was saying, first of all,

I was trying to ask for directions,

and they were like laughing at me or being quite rude.

["Fire" by Lizzy Mercier Descloux plays]

I had contacted Matteo.

I had to get a connection flight to Cusco,

and I only had, like, a short time and I was panicking.

In my head, I'm thinking I'm going to have to go to the jungle or something,

or, you know, actually probably go and collect the cocaine from there,

and how am I gonna get it back.

This was officially the worst come down ever!

[song fades]

[airport PA announcement in Spanish]

All alone in South America,

just a week past my 20th birthday.

One thing was certain,

I wasn't doing acid again.

[airport PA announcement in Spanish]

At that time, I kind of felt numb.

And because I had met this guy for, like, a brief five minutes,

and yet I was letting him have complete control over my life

and the decisions I was going to make. I was trusting him.

It was like I don't even know what, you know, what the fuck I'm doing.

How the fuck has my life came to this?

[Parry] I thought she was in Barcelona…

["Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald plays]

…but a couple of days after she'd left, I hadn't heard from her.

Yeah, I was really worried about her, actually.

I didn't know what the hell had happened.

Yeah, it was… it wasn't a great time.

It's like my whole season just took a turn from being

this great fun time with Michaella,

my, like, best friend out there.

["Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald plays]

So to go from that to just, like, worry.

Yeah, it wasn't good.

And then that's when her family contacted me.

[sighs] Yeah.

[somber music]

Being the only person that knew

that she was transporting drugs.

Before she left,

she told me to tell her parents and people that asked

that she was visiting a friend.

Um…

in Spain. So… that's what I said.

As the time went on, I started to get more concerned

and questioned like what I was doing and whether it was right.

And saying that she was going to visit a friend,

part of me thought…

like, you know, should I tell the truth,

but if I tell the truth, is that gonna get her more in trouble?

Yeah, didn't know what to do.

I was beside myself, was kind of stressed.

Just had to kid on that I didn't, I didn't know.

Didn't know where she was, but…

in my head at the time, I thought the worst.

As you do when, you know…

you just don't know what's gonna happen.

You don't know who these people are.

[Michaella] Matteo had booked us on yet another flight

to some place called Cusco,

right up in the mountains in literally the middle of nowhere.

["Noche de Cumbia" by Yeison Landero plays]

It was like no place I'd ever seen before,

only more so.

["Noche de Cumbia" by Yeison Landero plays]

Like everybody in Cusco,

well, most of the people that we'd seen at that time were dressed quite…

differently.

["Noche de Cumbia" by Yeison Landero plays]

I kind of felt like I was going back in time.

I was with Melissa…

and I was like, "Where are we?"

"Did you know this is what it was going to be like?"

And she was like, "Yeah."

And I was just kind of like, "What the fuck?" Like,…

you know, "You knew like this is gonna be what it's like?"

Like, "We're in South America, like, are we gonna be going to the jungle?"

And she was like, "No, don't be stupid."

And then I was kind of, like, well, "Clearly I am being stupid,"

when I didn't even really know what was going on.

[charango music plays]

Matteo was the only person from the gang we ever heard from.

[upbeat music]

But we heard from him a lot.

He booked us on this seven-day coach trip

where we had to make out like we were regular tourists

having the time of our lives.

♪ We are young, we run green ♪

♪ Keep our teeth nice and clean ♪

♪ See our friends, see the sights ♪

♪ Feel alright ♪

I still didn't know when we were getting the drugs,

or who it was who was going to give them to us.

♪ Smoke a fag, put it out ♪

♪ See our friends ♪

It was a weird feeling,

this thing of having put your life

in someone else's hands,

and then worrying if you could really trust them.

[interviewer] So what was on the itinerary?

Oh. Just like ridiculous things, not ridiculous things,

but things I probably didn't want to do at that time.

♪ We are young, we run green ♪

We did the Machu Picchu.

♪ Keep our teeth nice and clean ♪

♪ See our friends, see the sights ♪

-♪ Feel alright ♪ -[llama whinnies]

[song fades]

Matteo just kept insisting that this was the best way not to get caught.

[ominous music]

[Sonia in Spanish] It is a common methodology

that these organizations put together

to try to evade the police intelligence,

we see that here a lot.

[ominous music continues]

Well, I know this from experience,

and all the time, the 18 years, I've spent doing this job.

The crime is the crime

and whoever gets involved, they'll face the music

when we catch them,

that's why we're here.

[music fades]

["Le Pénitencier" by Johnny Hallyday plays]

["Le Pénitencier" continues]

[Michaella] Melissa seems so cool, so calm…

that I was beginning to think I wasn't cut out for this.

["Le Pénitencier" continues]

We kept meeting all these different families and…

they were like, "Oh, where are yous from?"

And "Oh, yous are English, Scottish and Irish?"

And, like, making conversation, and I was just like so annoyed.

I was just kind of like, "Oh, I couldn't make conversation with these people,"

and they were just trying to act normal, and Melissa was like,

"Oh, I'm a student nurse and Michaella's a photographer."

And they were like, "Oh, what kind of photo…"

like just acting totally normal,

but I kind of felt like I couldn't act normal…

'cause I kind of knew I was doing something really, really risky.

And, um, I kind of just felt like really shit,

and, like, all of sudden kind of depressed of like, "Oh, what have I done?"

And then we went for the bus on the way home,

and I was looking out the window, and Melissa said to me, like,

"Oh, why have you got a face on you like a slapped ass?"

[somber music]

[Michaella] And then I just lost it 'cause I was just so annoyed,

and I was just kind of like, "Look what we're about to do."

And I was shouting, and I never shout,

and I was like really losing it on the bus…

with all these other passengers, and…

I didn't care who was listening to me.

I didn't care that these people would find out that we were going to be,

you know, doing something illegal, like,

I was just so angry and pissed off that I kind of just flipped.

And I was kind of like, "I don't want to go and act like a tour,"

like, "I just need to be on my own." Like, "Just leave me alone."

I need to kind of digest what's going on,

and I'm not going to sit on some stupid bus

looking at stupid stuff that I don't care about.

Like, "I'm… don't want to do that."

Matteo rang me and I didn't want to answer the phone to him,

so he was texting me going crazy, like, "What the heck are you doing?"

And, you know, I was just kind of, like, "Oh, I don't know. I'm just freaking out,"

and he kind of reassured me,

and I kind of felt like maybe there's something wrong with me because…

Melissa's acting fine and… [clears throat]

…Matteo's acting fine. Everybody's acting fine,

and I'm having this mental breakdown. You know, maybe it's just me.

It wasn't just what we were about to do that was freaking me out,

it was what I'd already done.

It was nine days since I'd been in contact with anyone,

and I knew by now my friends and family would be worried sick.

[suspenseful riff plays]

Yeah.

[interviewer] So you were here when everyone found out she was missing.

It was on everybody's lips. 'Cause people do go missing.

They go missing for two or three days.

They go out, their phone battery runs out,

and they turn up at a villa party,

and their mates are going, "Oh, my God, we were so worried, where have you been?"

But this wasn't two or three days.

This was a week and a half,

and then it started to have that darker turn and we all kind of…

wondered if this was going to be the one person that went missing

that turned up in a ditch.

[ominous music]

[Nathan] We really went out of our way

to try and search,

posters, flyers, word of mouth, social media.

You know, a lot of people was worried about her.

[Patricia] For a young woman to go missing abroad

from Northern Ireland,

that never happens, it's extremely rare.

And when it did happen, alarm bells rung.

And that really led to us starting to look into the story.

[eerie music]

This pretty, young, aspiring model

had been out in Ibiza having the time of her life,

and now she's missing.

And as the week went on, her family were posting social media messages.

It went so viral

that celebrities, sports stars put out messages

to appeal for information.

It was huge, it really was.

And really…

that's how this story started to develop.

[ominous music]

[Michaella] Once we returned to Lima,

I don't know, I kind of realized that I couldn't pretend anymore.

I couldn't go along with everything, that it was fine.

I had to, like, get myself out of it.

[uneasy music]

I contacted Matteo and was like,

"Oh, I don't know if this is gonna work.

I don't really know if I want to be here. Like I just want to go home now."

And he was just like, "No, you're being dramatic.

Everybody is in on this," and like,

"You know there'll be people watching you."

[uneasy music turns up]

He said they were watching us for our benefit,

but I began to think

they weren't watching us, watching me for my own benefit.

They were just making sure I did the right thing.

[uneasy music continues]

And because he knew, you know, kind of my movements and things that I was doing,

and you know, where I was at certain times,

I kind of just felt really scared and paranoid.

I just thought that everybody was staring at us…

and became really, really on edge

and anxious.

[suspenseful percussive music]

We had spotted two police officers.

And I'd seen them looking at us and saying something.

And then they were walking towards me.

I wanted to run.

"Why are they coming to us?"

"Maybe they know what we're doing?"

And I don't know, I kind of just felt like all this now is in my head,

like, "They're probably part of Matteo's gang,"

or like, "Why are they acting like that?"

Melissa's like, "Shut up, you're being so stupid."

[suspenseful percussive music]

I've seen one of the police officers putting his hand on his belt.

And my heart was just racing so fast.

[music fades]

Just wanted a photograph.

So we thought okay, it's…

strange but okay, we'll take a picture.

So they took a picture on their cell phones,

and you know, we took a picture on our camera.

[eerie music]

We found it really strange and kind of,

I was like, "No, like, they know something,"

but of course they didn't know anything, you know,

but I was just really, really paranoid at that point.

[dogs barking]

[siren blaring]

[male journalist in Spanish] Who controls drug trafficking in Peru?

["B" in Spanish] Right now? I'm not sure any more,

but the same police are involved,

the same police and high ranking commanders and generals,

that is how it works.

You know that if you open your mouth,

they kill you.

[gunshots]

[gunshots continue]

For an ordinary person, it doesn't cost much.

90 to 100 dollars or something.

It's a world that when you enter, you cannot leave.

[vehicles honking]

I just didn't want to be there any longer.

I obviously wanted to be home with my family.

I just wanted to, like, go home.

[dogs barking]

My gut was saying, "Don't do this,"

and then my mind was just saying, "Just do what they want,

and it will be fine."

[insects chirping]

["Ave Verum" by Irish Music All-Stars plays]

[journalist] When her family heard that Michaella had gone missing in Ibiza,

that must have come as quite a shock to them, I guess?

[Colum] Yeah, the family felt very helpless and very hopeless.

When I went in to visit them,

it was almost like going into what we would call a wake house

where someone had died.

There was just a sense of anxiety and fear,

the not knowing.

I can still see the grief and just the anguish

written on that mother's face.

[somber music]

And it was devastating for the whole family.

Samantha, that's Michaella's sister, she literally just broke down.

And I can still hear her crying

in desperation to hug her sister.

This was the one thing that she really wanted to do

was to, to hold her.

That was a… that was a frightening moment.

[Michaella] I wanted to be back home so badly,

to not have got myself into this…

[ominous music]

…to not be in South America,

to not be waiting for someone to hand over the drugs.

Matteo text that the package was ready to collect,

but it turned out it wasn't a package.

It was a fucking load of them.

I had no idea that it was gonna be that extreme.

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

A guy on the street just handed it all over

like it was a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing.

I know it might sound so naïve

to think, "Oh, you're hardly going to travel all that way for…

you know, a small amount," but…

There was nearly 12 fucking kilos of this stuff.

It must have been worth millions.

All disguised as loads of little packs of…

porridge.

Did we look like the kind of girls who liked porridge so much

we'd take a suitcase full of it on a flight to Spain?

Did anyone?

Matteo was quite strict and said that it's so important

that it's only in the left-hand side of the suitcase.

And I couldn't understand.

Only one package fits in the bottom left.

"Where is the other 18 going to go?"

And he was like, "Oh, just wrap them in clothes."

[suspenseful music]

Why was it so important before

that it had to go in that position in the suitcase?

All of a sudden it doesn't matter where it is.

[music fades]

[Alexandro] I cannot talk directly about Michaella's case,

but in reality, the person

giving 12 kilos to Michaella

knows that he can lose this 12 kilos,

and he doesn't care about losing or not to lose.

[plastic rustling]

[Alexandro] It's like a Volkswagen or a Citroen,

they know they have some losses per year.

It's, you know, the predicted losses of an enterprise.

Pablo Escobar,

he received 80 million dollars per day.

80 million dollars over a day.

It's a lot of money, really.

[electronic music]

[Alexandro] So… you know,

many times in cartels, once the mule is arrested,

this is the truth…

[Alexandro] Seriously, let's… let's tell the truth.

They prepared police…

because at the same time,

they are making passage through 300 kilos in the same plane, you know.

This is one of the classical game.

This is called chivatón in Spanish.

Chivatón is like the birds… the birds' singing.

Chivatón, you know?

And they call the police, telling, "Okay,

there is a lady with some drugs passing by."

At the same time, three guys are…

making exit 300 kilos, 400 kilos of crack.

It's very common.

[suspenseful music]

[alarm clock ringing]

[Michaella] I barely slept,

but the time had come.

It was too late to back out now.

Matteo wanted his drugs back in Spain just as much as I did.

He's done it before,

and all I had to do was keep my cool.

Really just tried to like change my attitude towards it and…

kind of stay positive, I guess.

Our bags, now 90 percent "porridge",

were packed.

[door closes]

Never in my life had I not wanted more coke,

but this was a joke.

We could barely get them down the stairs.

[suitcase thuds]

If I tried to lift it, it would be very obvious that I was struggling.

Um, so that was a problem. [chuckles]

People are gonna think,

"what has she got in her suitcase that she's struggling to lift?"

But you know, it was kind of, like, strange.

I started to think that, you know, I can do this.

I was kind of in my little fantasy.

Because he kept saying constantly, you know,

how, like, good I was and how his friends were there waiting for me,

and, like, how he had everything planned out,

and he was, like, question why don't I trust him.

And has he given me a reason not to trust him?

And obviously I was like no, but obviously I'm afraid,

and he was like, "Well, I'm telling you not to be afraid."

And he was kind of just, every time I came with, like, a worry,

he would, like, back it down and have, like, an answer for it. So…

it kind of felt like, "Oh, maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe I am just…

freaking out a little bit."

I wanted to believe what I was being told.

I wanted to hold onto that hope.

[music fades]

[vehicles honking]

[ominous music]

If you think taking coke is a rush…

try walking a million quids' worth of the stuff into an international airport.

[child laughing]

[heartbeats]

Matteo couldn't help me now.

Whatever happened next,

it was on me.

First thing I noticed when I walked into the airport

was how much security there was.

[ominous music]

I started to panic.

[ominous music intensifies]

I went to the bathroom because I kind of just wanted to be by myself,

and I kind of just wanted to think about, like, what am I doing,

and I just wanted to be alone.

["Obvs" by Jamie XX plays]

I wasn't ready to make that commitment of checking my case in.

And I probably sat there for like 20 minutes

'cause I just didn't know what to do.

Deep down, I kind of knew this was never going to work.

I just didn't want to leave.

I just wanted to stay there and close my eyes

and wake up in my bed in my mum's house.

["Obvs" by Jamie XX continues playing]

I thought about calling my mum

and telling her that I was stuck in Peru, in the airport,

and I needed to come home.

And then I dismissed it because I thought it would cause her too much stress.

["Obvs" by Jamie XX continues playing]

I don't know what the repercussions would have been

if I had of made another decision,

but I feel like I could have just walked away from it.

["Obvs" by Jamie XX continues playing]

I don't think the consequences would have been worse,

than, you know, what they actually turned out to be.

[clock ticks loudly]

[music fades]

[suitcase rolling]

[ominous music]

[pensive music]

[Michaella] I met Melissa at the line.

And we just stood there…

and just waited until we were called to check in our bags.

[Sonia in Spanish] I think it's known worldwide that

every airport has undercover police.

They are specialists in

spotting characteristics of these people.

And they're rarely wrong.

[indistinct chatter]

[Michaella] At that time, I couldn't really hear what was going on.

[ominous music]

I wasn't even aware of everything that was going on around me.

I was just in that zone.

[Sonia in Spanish] The people get nervous,

they don't take their eyes off their luggage.

They don't leave it alone.

[Michaella] Every two foot, there was a military police officer.

POLICE

There was like 30 in front of me.

I was just watching them, trying not to give eye contact…

but trying to notice if they were looking at me…

see if they knew something.

I probably looked like a deer caught in headlights.

[ominous music continues]

As we get closer, I start to get more nervous.

I see my case passing through the conveyor belt.

I was counting down the seconds…

because I thought that is how I would get caught.

[suspenseful music]

But weirdly,

the dogs weren't making a fuss.

I felt like I'm relaxing a little bit.

I can't believe what is happening.

[suspenseful music intensifies]

[music fades]

When he tapped me,

I was like, "Oh, shit!

I'm fucked, like, that's it. It's done."

[closing theme music]