Michaela McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid leave a police statiion to hear their fate

A NORTHERN Ireland dancer and her travelling companion will know on Tuesday evening what charges they will face.

Michaela McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, and Melissa Reid, from Glasgow, have been in police custody for two weeks.

They were arrested on August 5 on suspicion of trying to traffic £1.5 million of cocaine out of Peru to Spain.

Around lunchtime on Tuesday, they were taken handcuffed from the police compound which has been their home for the past fortnight after they were stopped at Jorge Chavez airport in Lima.

The two were whisked away in police cars to the local public prosecutor’s office in Callao.

There drug squad detectives have been outlining the case against the two women who deny drug trafficking.

They claim they were forced at gunpoint by a 14-strong Colombian drug gang to take the drugs or their families would be harmed.

According to reports in Peru, Ms McCollum Connolly and Ms Reid were examined by a doctor before the proceedings started.

Michaela McCollum Connolly (left) and Melissa Reid arrested at airport for drug trafficking

During the proceedings, a Peruvian lawyer, directed by Ms McCollum Connolly’s solicitor Peter Madden, will give their own statements to the prosecutor, outlining their defence against the police claims.

It is expected that despite their denials, the pair will be charged with either being concerned in trafficking or smuggling of 11.5 kg of cocaine.

They will then be brought to the Calloa Justice building and formally charged by a judge.

Afterwards they are expected to be transferred a spit-and-sawdust cramped women’s prison within the Callao jurisdiction.