THE Bloody Sunday lawyer representing one of the Britons arrested on suspicion of smuggling 11kg of cocaine in Peru has said his client will plead not guilty if charged, as further details of an alleged British drug ring operating in Ibiza emerged.
Peter Madden, one of Northern Ireland's top lawyers, said Michaella McCollum Connolly - who was detained 10 days ago along with Scot Melissa Reid, who turns 20 today - would deny allegations of drug trafficking.
The pair, who had been on holiday and working separately in Ibiza, have claimed they were forced into drug-running after being duped by a mysterious Cockney they met on the island, who then handed them over to armed Colombians. They told British newspapers their passports and mobile phones were confiscated and the gang threatened to harm their families.
Mr Madden, who is expected to arrive in Lima today, said Ms Connolly, 20, was doing well in custody but it was a difficult position for a young woman to be in.
He said: "She is saying she has done nothing wrong, that she is innocent and that as far as any offences are concerned, if she is charged she will be denying it."
Mr Madden, who headed up the legal team that represented the majority of deceased and wounded at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, is expected to stay in Lima for around a week. He plans to attend a preliminary court hearing in Lima, delayed until next week while police obtain a translator for the accused.
Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly were arrested at Jorge Chavez Airport in Lima on August 6 with a haul of the drug worth £1.5 million hidden in food packets stuffed inside their suitcases.
If convicted, they could face lengthy sentences in an overcrowded Peruvian prison.
Meanwhile, another Scot said he believed he had fallen victim to the same drugs ring which snared Ms Reid and Ms McCollum Connolly. The unnamed man from East Lothian said he was lured into becoming a mule for the same dealers in the summer of 2011, after accumulating debts while working as a barman on the island.
The father-of-one said he recognised members of the gang in the background of Facebook photos posted by Ms Reid, and realised she had been taken in by the same people who had offered him the chance to pay off his debts by selling ecstasy tablets to clubbers.
He said the gang - run in Ibiza by a 27-year-old "henchman" from Essex and overseen by a shadowy London boss - eventually persuaded him to pay off the €4000 he owed by doing a drug run to Peru, with the promise of an additional €5000 pay-off.
After travelling to Madrid Airport with his friend, the Scot said they were too scared to go through with it and fled.
He said: "We both agreed to escape. I was booked on that flight to Lima. We legged it. We lived rough for a few days before managing to slum it back to Scotland. What happened to Melissa could have been me and my friend standing there."
It has also been reported the gang alleged to have recruited the pair is being directed from behind bars by singer Phil Collins's nephew, Philip Austin Collins.
The 37-year-old has been held at the maximum security Piedras Gordas prison in Peru since May following his arrest, in March 2012, when police discovered £3m worth of cocaine on board a yacht he was preparing to sail across the Atlantic.
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