01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

[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 sh**ting

of a teenager last night

brought the death toll in a week

of t*rror1st savagery to eight.

[Michaella] sh**ting 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 f*cked 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,

c*ck 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 k*ll" 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 k*ll ♪

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 f*cked.

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, sh*t!"

Like, "What the f*ck did we just do?"

Like, "What did we just find?"

Who has g*ns 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 g*n 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 g*ns,

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, sh*t!"

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 f*cked.

Like, that's it, it's done.

[closing theme music]