British girls are lying about being forced to smuggle cocaine from Peru, says Ibiza police chief....

Michaella McCollum Connolly (L), 20, and Melissa Reid, 19, are questioned by police in Lima (Picture: Reuters)

The head of Ibiza’s organised crime division has claimed the two young British women accused of attempting to smuggle £1.5million-worth of cocaine from Peru are lying about being forced at gunpoint.
Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly are being held in Lima on suspicion of drug trafficking but claim they were forced to take a trip to South America to collect the drugs by an armed gang.
However, the head of the Ibiza police unit responsible for countering organised crime, first sergeant Alberto Arian Barilla, has cast doubt on their version of events.

‘In my experience I don’t think these two girls were forced to do this because – particularly when you go to South America – you need to pass several controls,’ he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
‘The first thing you do is go to the passport control and say, “Listen, this is what is happening to me”. The policeman will react so I don’t think they were forced.’

Michaella McCollum Connolly was at the centre of a Facebook campaign to locate her before it was revealed she had been arrested in Peru (Picture: Facebook)

Ms Reid, from Scotland, and Ms McCollum Connolly from Dungannon, Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, had been working in bars on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza.
They were arrested last week as they attempted to leave Lima on a flight to Spain and found with 11 kilos of cocaine wrapped in food bags inside their luggage.