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Micaella with her friend Mellissa Reid after the drugs were found. Kick Screameer via YouTube

Michaella says she's innocent, optimistic about court and misses home

The 20-year-old Irish woman and her British friend Melissa Reid are due in court court tomorrow.

THE FAMILY OF Michaella McCollum Connolly, the woman being held in Peru on suspicion of drug trafficking, say they are “shocked” and “distressed”.

However, in a statement issued on their behalf by their solicitor Peter Madden they said they “are confident that Michaela (sic) will be exonerated”.

“I spoke to Michaela last night and she emphasised that she denied that she was guilty of any offence. She is well. She is not on hunger strike. She is finding it difficult to cope with the current situation, so far from home, but is optimistic,” added Madden.

Madden is also said to be arranging legal representation for her in Lima, where she will appear in court tomorrow.

The 20-year-old from Dungannon in Co Tyrone and her friend 19-year-old Mellissa Reid from Glasgow were arrested at Jorge Chavez airport last Tuesday as they tried to check into a flight bound for Madrid.

Peruvian authorities found 11kg of cocaine in bags that were with him.

Michaella’s family initially thought she was missing for almost two weeks in Ibiza where she had been living for the summer. The statement also said her family “fully support her” and they are making arrangements to travel to Peru.

They have also contacted support groups in Lima to “ensure that her current needs are met”.

The drugs that were recovered inside the food packages. (Kick Screameer/You Tube)

Video: Irish woman Michaella McCollum Connolly in Lima drugs bust>

Read: ‘Missing’ Michaella McCollum Connolly visited by British embassy in Peru>

More: Irish woman missing in Ibiza found and arrested in Peru over drugs find>

Also: Fears grow for missing Belfast woman last seen 12 days ago in Ibiza>

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71 Comments
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    Mute Jed I. Knight
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    Feb 5th 2014, 7:38 PM

    I’m guessing their target audience isn’t rural Ireland???

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    Mute Ina Smidiríní
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    Feb 6th 2014, 1:24 AM

    No they would be talking about places like Africa I presume.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 5th 2014, 7:47 PM

    Great another reason for people to think I’ll email them back immediately.

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    Mute Gobblor
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:10 PM

    End world hunger? No! Wifi for all!

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    Mute PerkyBeans
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    Feb 5th 2014, 9:50 PM

    You can download food,
    Torrent a bag of spuds

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    Mute Drew Clarke
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:31 PM

    please hurry up. I’m being charged e80 a month by onwave for a 20mb connection and I rarely get above 1.5mb. In fact my upload speed is 4 times faster than my download speed 9 times out of ten.

    Someone needs to do an expose on satellite broadband speeds in Ireland. It’s a rip off and needs to be exposed.

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    Mute John Horan
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:10 PM

    One way, so more like aertel then actual internet then.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:12 PM

    WAP is back!!

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    Mute John Horan
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    Feb 5th 2014, 10:11 PM

    WAP was still two way. This, like aertel, is one way, so you would receive all the possible pages in one small subset of the internet and hopefully whatever page you want to look at is contained in there.

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    Mute family guy
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:03 PM

    The mother in laws house has very bad mobile and broadband coverage. Nice to go out there and forget about the phone for a while. This might put an end to this.

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    Mute Gobblor
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    Feb 5th 2014, 9:11 PM

    Or you could just turn it off? DUH!

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    Mute John Swan
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    Feb 5th 2014, 9:38 PM

    What’ll happen to all those fiber optic cables being put in all over the country then? Also, hate to be a stickler about this, but what about the EMF/radiation exposure this would cause? The health implications would really need to be thoroughly and independently investigated.

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    Mute Gabrielle Humphreys
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    Feb 7th 2014, 10:04 PM

    What do you mean John, can you explain to me a wee bit more, gay

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    Mute Alien8
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    Feb 5th 2014, 9:15 PM

    Minimum orbit is 300km, max wifi usually 30m (Max theoretical TDMA range is around 15km). I get the feeling this is an investor trick, but they’ll have to come up with new ideas. Also transmitters for 2 way are over a metre in size for rubbish internet – even Niall Quinn couldn’t sell you that.

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    Mute Daniel Rea
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    Feb 5th 2014, 8:38 PM

    Well if the scientists are right there’ll be no bees left and say goodbye to fertile men

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