READERS of Peru's most influential newspaper El Comercio are divided on whether Michaella McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid should be jailed if found guilty, or deported back to Britain.

Both young women claim they were forced at gunpoint by gangsters to carry the drugs.

One reader of the newspaper wrote: "Now they're crying. Should they be pardoned because of pressure from the European media?

"No-one threatened them, at least there is no evidence of that, but we did see film footage of their arrogance when they were arrested."

Another wrote: "Everyone knows there's a lot of drugs, alcohol, etc in Ibiza. There are wild parties there and their alleged captivity [in Ibiza] sounds like a tall story to me."

According to Peru's drug squad, 248 mules carrying 1581 kilos of cocaine were intercepted last year at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport while trying to board aircraft bound for Europe. The majority of the mules were Spanish citizens, followed by Peruvians, Mexicans, Italians, Colombians and Bulgarians, in that order.

McCollum Connolly and Reid were detained by drug enforcement officials at the airport after being detected by a sniffer dog.

Prison conditions in Peru are notoriously tough, and if convicted the women could face many years behind bars.

One El Comercio reader expressed the view that Reid and McCollum Connolly should be freed "and allowed to return home if it is proven that they were forced to transport the drugs", while another added: "They're kids, they should be deported, but not before being given the fright of their lives."