A British woman, sentenced to 80 months in jail in Peru on drug smuggling charges was released on Tuesday (21 June), after serving three years imprisonment. Melissa Reid, 22, was set free by a Lima court that passed the order under a Peruvian law that allows first-time drug smugglers to be released earlier for good behaviour.

Melissa was seen along with her father, Billy, at the same airport where she and accomplice Michaella McCollum, were apprehended on 6 August 2013. The duo were trying to smuggle 11kg of cocaine, worth £1.5m ($2.20m, €1.96m), hidden in their luggage to Spain.

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McCollum was released in March, but remains in Peru on parole. Janeth Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Peru's prison system, said: "[Reid] served her times in prison according to the law and can now go to her country, free, to the streets."

McCollum is from Dungannon in Co Tyrone, while Melissa is from Lenzie in the East Dunbartonshire council area of Scotland. In an interview with RTE One, she talked about her release and said that she had made a bad decision in a "moment of madness".

"I've forgotten the things that everybody takes for granted in life. Seeing the sun, seeing the darkness, seeing the moon and the stars, things I haven't seen in almost three years," she said, according to the Telegraph.

It is unclear whether she would serve her remaining sentence in Scotland.

Peru Drug Mules
Melissa Reid (R) and Michaella McCollum are escorted from a truck by police at Sarita Colonia prison in Callao - File image Reuters
Spain