Belfast dancer Michaella McCollum Connolly and pal caught with £1,5 million cocaine haul

A BELFAST woman missing from Ibiza for a fortnight has been arrested along with a British girl on suspicion trafficking Class A drugs with a street value of £1.5 million.

Now the pair face up to ten years behind bars in a Peruvian jail if convicted of the offences.

Michaella McCollum Connolly who had moved to Ibiza from Belfast was reported missing last week after her family had not heard from her for about 12 days.

Now the 20-year-old has been finally traced to the other side of the world – allegedly caught trying to smuggle drugs out of the country.

Police in the South American country said that counter-narcotics agents searched the pair and discovered a total of 25.35 pounds of cocaine hidden in their luggage.

Miss McCollum Connolly’s luggage was search and 12.8 pounds of the class A drug was allegedly discovered stuffed inside another 16 food packets.

Miss Reid’s suitcase allegedly contained a further 18 food product packets, inside which was a total of 12.74 pounds of cocaine.

The potential street value is estimated at up to £1.5 million.

Irish embassy officials are providing consular assistance to her family after she was found alive.

On its website, Peru’s National Police Force announced that Ms McCollum Connolly and a 19-year-old British national Melissa Reid had been arrested by drug enforcement officers at Lima’s international airport on Tuesday.

Pretty Michaella McCollum Connolly left Belfast to seek dance work on Ibiza’s party island

The two are reported to have been intending to board a flight to Madrid before getting a connecting flight to Palma, Mallorca.

The two women were arrested at an Air Europa counter in the airport.

Officers say the women had onward flights booked from Madrid to Palma in Majorca.

Michaella McCollum Connolly, who was living in a flat in north Belfast before moving to Ibiza in June, worked for a period as a party hostess in Belfast’s M Club in Bradbury Place.