Inside the influencer life of Peru Two’s Michella McCollum where she cashes in on drug smuggling shame as public speaker
OVER ten years ago, on 6 August 2013, life turned upside down for Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid.
The two women, who were 20 at the time, were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru, after it was discovered that their suitcases contained a shocking £1.5 million of cocaine between them.
Before the incident, Michaella and Melissa weren’t friends and had flown in from Ibiza, Spain, where they were on holiday.
Similarly to another woman, Kim Hall – who now faces a whopping 60 years behind the bars after taking two suitcases of ”cash” from Mexico – the duo initially claimed they had been coerced by an armed gang.
From there on their lives would become intertwined together forever – and the young lasses would internationally land themselves the title, The Peru Two.
After pleading guilty to drug smuggling (in exchange for a financial pay-off), Michaella, from Northern Ireland, and Melissa, from Glasgow, were sentenced to over six years and eight months of jail time in the notorious Ancon 2 prison.
Michaella, who was working as a part-time model and a nightclub hostess abroad, and Melissa, a sales assistant, served three years, during which they took up coveted positions training in beauty therapy in a bid to become hair stylists.
Following her release Melissa admitted she knew what she was doing.
She confessed: “I made a conscious decision to do it and no one forced me.”
Michaella also opened up, saying she was “stupid” to get seduced into making just £5,000 and thought Peru was a Spanish town.
Michaella – who also became known for sporting a huge bun at the top of her head – has also since launched two books, in one of which, You’ll Never See Daylight Again, she spoke about her time behind bars.
The woman, now a mum-of-two, wrote: “Was I guilty? Yes.
”Did I know what I was doing? Sort of. Was I hung out to dry by a bunch of gangsters and the Peruvian justice system? Absolutely.
“So why did I do it? Why did I jeopardise everything and bring untold heartache to my adored family for a few easy quid?”
It’s been more than a decade since everything changed for Michaella, who is in her early 30s – and here’s here life now, as a public speaker, a wife, an author and a former drug mule who’s estimated net worth is reported to be an astronomical $1million.
‘Sexually active inmates’ & a prisoner feeding her hubby their child in a stew
Unlike her accomplice Melissa, who is believed to be doing charity work back in Scotland, Michaella has embraced the limelight in full swing to share her story with the world.
Looking at her Instagram account, which boasts more than 100k followers, one wouldn’t be able to tell that the mother of twins boys had survived Peruvian jail.
Just ten years ago, Michaella was surrounded by fellow inmates she described as ”so sexually active” and would end up ”sobbing” on her concrete block, she revealed in an exclusive BBC3 documentary.
”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.”
Fast-forward to 2024 and her lavish lifestyle is a far cry from her time behind bars, jet-setting to picturesque locations and soaking up the sun in Greece.
Public speaker & a mum-of-two
Aside from telling her story, Michaela, who’s ditched the signature black hairdo for a blonde mane, has also been busy raising her twin boys, Rafael Genie and Rio Addison.
The boys, now six, were born in May 2018 following a short relationship and although Michaella documented her pregnancy on social media, she has kept the identity of their father under wraps.
Announcing the birth of her sons on Instagram, the proud mother shared a wholesome a clip of herself in hospital as she cuddled them on her chest.
She wrote: ”My little darlings, 1 week today.”
The trendy fashion lovers is not with the father of the two boys – but has said she knew she could raise her sons by herself.
She said: “It’s nothing something I planned, it’s not how I envisioned things.
“They are my children and I love them.”
Whilst not much is known about who the father of Rafael and Rio is – or her love life – a recent clip saw Michaella posing and exploring Germany with a fella named Paddy Mone.
The glamorous drug mule has not yet confirmed whether Paddy is a love interest or simply a pal.
In September 2022 she announced she’d had her first public speaking engagement & commenters have revealed just how inspiring her story is.
One wrote: ” it’s interesting how certain chapters of our lives must happen to help us reveal a version of ourselves we otherwise wouldn’t have encountered.”
“I love how you have changed your life for the better,” another penned.
£250k book deal
She found international fame as a young – and glam – drug mule and Michealla has certainly made the most of her notorious status as a criminal.
After serving three years in jail, Michaella – who is from a small town called Dungannon – wrote a book, You’ll Never See Daylight Again, and was offered an eye-watering £250,000 for the tell-all story.
Within the memoir, Michaella described learning Spanish in order to better get along with other prison guards and inmates, some of whom she described as ”psychotic” and violent.
The book, which included details that were not disclosed in the media, is just one of the ways the mum has used her story to take in serious cash.
In 2017, sources confirmed that the former part-time model had signed a ‘‘six-figure deal’’ for TV series where she interviews international drug dealers.
Whilst working on an episode in Liverpool, the then 24-year-old was spotted sporting a posh £1,000 designer handbag.
That same year, the jailbird was also set to cash in on her questionable fame with a stint on Big Brother – however, the Northern Irish lass was deemed ”not famous enough”, Metro reported.
Her pitch is said to have been turned down by show bigwigs, with Channel 5 boss Ben Frow telling when asked if she could be a housemate: ‘’I wouldn’t have thought so, Michaella has had no impact here at all.’’
Celebrating Netflix worldwide
Two years ago, in 2022, the ex-jailbird also looked unrecognisable as she had glammed up to celebrate a major global Netflix deal.
The mum-of-two posed in front of a Netflix logo cake and wrote: “F***ing celebration cake! Netflix worldwide weekend.”
Michaella’s docuseries High: Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule – which aired on the BBC a year before – was released globally on Netflix and became a hit, landing number six in Slovenia.
Speaking on the BBC documentary, she said: “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.
“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.”
She penned a book on her time in prison, and said she had received heaps of TV offers that were willing to pay her “ridiculous” amounts of cash since her release – but thought she wouldn’t make much money from her book.
“I would have made more money by doing two TV interviews so I did the book because I wanted to tell my story.
“If I wanted to cash in on it I would have been making money a long time ago.”