The Peru Two became known as a pair after their notorious crime hit the headlines in 2013 - but in the decade that has passed since, their lives couldn't be more different.
Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima after being caught smuggling £1.5million of cocaine which they had hidden in food packets. They were sentenced to six years and eight months in a notorious high-security prison, Ancon 2.
When Michaella was released in 2015 after serving half her sentence, she arrived back in Ireland with her head down while cameras followed her through Dublin airport.
Since then, the two women's lives have diverged in very different directions - and while Michaella has appeared happy to embrace her time in the limelight, Melissa has opted for a much more low-key existence.
For while Michaella is a mother-of-two, who is about to begin working at a veterinary recruitment firm, Melissa is believed to be single and working in charity back in Scotland.
Melissa Reid (right) and Michaella McCollum Conolly (left) were arrested at Lima airport with cocaine in their luggage
Since then, the two women's lives have diverged in very different directions - and Michaella has appeared happy to embrace her time in the limelight
Melissa is believed to be single and working in charity back in Scotland, where she lives close to her parents
Meanwhile Michaella's Instagram account, which has more than 100,000 followers, shows her jet-setting around the world with her twin five-year-old boys, Rio and Rafael, and she describes herself as a 'public speaker'.
She has also written a memoir about her time in prison, which was made into a five-part documentary which was distributed worldwide.
Melissa has appeared to avoid any of the public spotlight - with no public social media and no interviews given to media since 2016.
Here FEMAIL reveals the very different lives of Melissa and Michaela, from their approach to life in the spotlight to their personal relationships.
CASHING IN ON THE CRISIS?
Melissa has rarely been seen in public since her release from prison, and tends to keep a low profile with few interviews or media appearances to her name (pictured being escorted through Lima aiport by Peruvian immigration officers after being deported from the country in 2016)
Michaella hasn't shyed away from the lmelight - and in 2021, her five-part documentary, called High, was released on Netflix in which she relived her story
The two women have had a very different approach to cashing in on their crimes.
When they were first arrested in 2013 at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima after she and Reid were found to be carrying 11kg of cocaine, the pair faced up to 15 years in jail.
However, the friends, who had been enlisted to smuggle the drugs back to Madrid for £5,000, accepted a plea deal from the authorities which reduced their prison sentence to six years and eight months.
In March 2015, after serving half her sentence, Michaella was released from jail and the following year, she was allowed to fly back to Ireland.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain in 2019, four years after her release from jail, Michaella recalled the terror of realising the gravity of her situation.
She told presenters Susanna Reid, Piers Morgan and Charlotte Hawkins that she was 'numb' at first, and it 'took a while' for her to understand the seriousness of the situation she was in, but that when it sunk in, it was 'petrifying'.
When asked by Susanna if she thought she would get away with smuggling 11kg of cocaine into Madrid, Michaella responded: 'I actually didn't even think about the consequences of what that would do to society or myself and my family... I wasn't really thinking at all. It was just so stupid.'
As she was further grilled over her motivation for smuggling the drugs, for which she was going to be paid £5,000, she added: 'I was just stupid.'
During the interview, Morgan quizzed Michaella over the money she was set to make from writing her book High: My Prison Journey as One of the Infamous Peru Two.
Responding to his criticism, Michaella revealed she planned to spend any money she might make from the book to 'pay back debts'.
She insisted that she had turned down several TV shows and interviews which had offered her money to tell her story after she had returned from Peru.
In 2021, Michaella's five-part documentary, also called High, was released on Netflix in which she relived her story.
The show reached the number six spot in South Africa, Canada, Slovenia, Switzerland and Czech Republic, seventh in Netherlands and eighth in Sweden, Austria and Romania.
During the documentary, she recalled the terror she felt at the prospect of spending 15 years in Ancon 2, one of South America's fearsome maximum-security women prisons - which made her 'want to do something stupid'.
'The whole place was just so toxic, everything about it was toxic, the majority of the people were toxic,' she said. 'The first thing I noticed about Ancon was it was just so manic and crazy and noisy, it sounded like a zoo.
'It just felt like you were in this madhouse. There was this woman... she had caught her husband having an affair and she had killed their child, and then she fed it to her husband in a stew.
'I've never been so scared and I was obviously really intimidated because we were foreign... One of the things I noticed about Ancon quite quickly was they were just so active sexually.
'I'd never actually seen people be so open about their sexuality, I was shocked that they were doing that kind of thing quite openly.
'Nobody was really making that big of an issue so I didn't really want to make an issue of it either, but I felt uncomfortable that was happening so close to me.
'The way people would behave like that and the fact I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying just added to this whole confusing mad feel of the place where you never knew what was going to happen next.'
As the show launched, she posted a series of glamorous snaps on Instagram in which she celebrated her latest project with a Netflix-branded cake.
She wrote: 'F****** celebration cake! Netflix worldwide weekend.'
The BBC later confirmed Michaella had not received payment for the documentary.
After recalling the horror of being imprisoned in a notorious maximum security jail, Michaella told how she used every possible opportunity to prove she was trustworthy.
This included working in the prison's beauty salon and learning Spanish so she could befriend other inmates and become their delgada (representative).
'I learned the prison had their very own beauty salon, more like a few chairs and mirrors and a concrete room, but for me it was heaven,' she told the programme.
'I got a job and I would do different hair treatments, colouring and cutting, blow-dries, waxing, nails, massage. I had no real qualifications, I was winging it but I was good at it. I had a lot of clients.
'I really did try to improve things; I got water filters so we could all have clean water and a microwave, and we would have evenings where we have an hour of dancing.'
Her 'lucky break' finally came in 2015 when she met a man called Fernando who worked at the local courtroom and hired himself out to prisoners who were fed up with waiting for their parole paperwork on the side.
For a healthy fee he would grease the appropriate wheels to expedite his clients’ case, so Michaella paid the bribe and made an impassioned plea for freedom.
'I wanted them to understand how the mistakes I’d made in the past had given me this chance to learn and grow,' she said.
She was released in 2016 and told how she and her mother 'hugged like freaks for 10 minutes' before the guards told her to leave. Michaella then helped arrange for Reid to expedite her parole hearing.
'When you’re young you don’t know it all. I made a dreadful mistake and I regret it, but what prison taught me made me who I am today and that’s a better person than I would have been otherwise,' she said. 'I am a mam now and I am going to get on with being the best one I can.'
Meanwhile in an interview following her release, Melissa, who was 19 at the time of her arrest, admitted she had smuggled the drugs for the cash - and the chance to boast about her exploits.
She said: 'I was taking drugs - ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine - and on a downward spiral and it wasn't going to end well.
‘In Ibiza there are strong influences and everyone is taking drugs - it becomes completely normal. I got swept up in that.’
Melissa added: ‘I thought it sounded like a challenge and was blasé about it.
'I was offered £4,000 but it wasn't just about the money. I had saved up before I left Scotland so I had cash for rent. I didn't owe any money or anything. I just wanted to be able to boast about it.'
But she admitted: ‘I honestly think that if I had carried on the way I was going I would be dead right now.
‘I never worried about being caught. I never really thought about what I was doing.
‘I think I wanted to be this big person that I’m not.’
CAREER
After returning home from Peru, Melissa took up a fitness regime and set about dedicating herself to helping others - taking a job working at the Citizens Advice bureau in Glasgow (pictured in 2013)
Michaela last week shared pictures in a cap and gown picking up a diploma for her BBA in Business Management, Marketing and Related Support Services at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland
Michaella, also 29, regularly posts glamorous travel photos and outfit shots on Instagram to her 100,000 followers
Michaela last week shared pictures in a cap and gown picking up a diploma for her BBA in Business Management, Marketing and Related Support Services at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.
Looking radiant on the docks of Ulster in a slinky golden dress, and black graduation cap and gown, the former jailbird posed with her twin sons Rio and Rafael, a world away from 10 years ago where she was arrested in Peru.
Now, ten years on she's landed a job at international veterinary recruitment specialist Lloyd & Cowan, with her role entailing expanding the company's markets in English-speaking countries across the world.
Meanwhile Michaella, also 29, regularly posts glamorous travel photos and outfit shots on Instagram to her 100,000 followers and occasionally appears on TV shows such as Good Morning Britain to recount her story.
After returning home from Peru, Melissa took up a fitness regime and set about dedicating herself to helping others - taking a job working at the Citizens Advice bureau in Glasgow.
PERSONAL LIFE
Aside from telling her story, Michaela, who looks very different now to her prison days, has also been busy raising her five-year-old twin boys, Rafael Genie and Rio Addison
Meanwhile Melissa recently broke up with her long term boyfriend Gary, whom she lived with in East Ayrshire
Aside from telling her story, Michaela, who looks very different now to her prison days, has also been busy raising her five-year-old twin boys, Rafael Genie and Rio Addison.
The twins were born in May 2018 following a short relationship and while she often posts photos of herself with her sons online and documented her pregnancy with her 100,000 Instagram followers, she has kept the identity of their father under wraps.
Announcing the birth of her sons on Instagram, Michaela posted a video of herself in hospital as she cuddled them on her chest.
She wrote: 'My little darlings, 1 week today.'
And while Michaela tends to keep her romances low-key, Melissa's latest relationship started when the two were in prison.
She fell for Gary Stafford after he trekked to South America and visited her as she languished in a hell-hole jail.
Romance blossomed when Melissa was freed from prison after serving nearly half of a six year sentence for trafficking cocaine worth £1.5 million.
After she returned from prison, she moved in with her parents Billy and Debbie before setting up home with her boyfriend Gary.
The couple lived quietly in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, where they were often seen out walking their dog together.
However earlier this year, it emerged the couple had split.
A source told MailOnline: ‘Melissa has moved out. They were together for five years but the relationship ran its course.
‘It’s very sad. Gaz really helped her get through the toughest days of her life.
‘He was travelling around South America and heard what happened to her and made contact with Melissa while she was in jail.
‘She agreed to let him visit her and they fell for each other. Melissa has said she did not think she would have got through it all without him.
‘They returned to Scotland after Melissa was released and moved in together. They were very happy.
‘Gaz is very private and has not said why they split up.
‘Although Mellissa has tried to put her past behind her I think Gaz struggled with all the attention surrounding her that still goes on.
‘He knew what he was letting himself in for but I think that probably played a huge part in them separating.
‘I can remember him telling me that quite often when they went for dog walks there would be people taking photos of them. In the end I think it all got too much.’
The source added: ‘It’s a great shame because she has put her past behind her and moved on.
'She too just wants to live a quiet life and has no desire to be famous on the back of what happened.’
TIME IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Melissa Reid set up a home in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, after being released in 2016 (File photo: Melissa Reid boards a flight at Lima airport with her father after being deported from Peru)
Michaella McCollum Connolly (pictured) signed a £25,000-deal for a tell-all book about her experiences entitled You'll Never See Daylight Again.
As well as releasing a book and a documentary series about her experience, Michaella has done a number of interviews and TV appearances to discuss her crime.
She has appeared on shows like Good Morning Britain and Lorraine.
Meanwhile Melissa has now moved back to her home town of Lenzie, six miles north east of the city.
A neighbour in the leafy town near previously told MailOnline: ‘She seems a really nice, cheery girl.
‘She always speaks in passing and is always very polite and by the looks of it she has totally turned her life around.
‘Nobody in the block has ever really spoken about her shenanigans, although everyone knows what she got up to all those years ago.
‘It’s not really something you would bring up in a conversation to be honest.
‘You never really see anyone go in or out of her flat - she did have a boyfriend, but they split up and she obviously decided to move back home closer to her family here in Lenzie.’
Another neighbour added: ‘Melissa is a lovely girl, we speak often - she keeps herself to herself.’
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaJ6Voq6quI6aqa2hk6Gybn2Ra29wbWFmfJW0xGabop6Wmr%2BmutNmo6Kulah6kbHRrmSNr59jtbW5yw%3D%3D