‘sup?

Michaella Connolly’s pal partied with a one-eyed convicted criminal before they were busted for cocaine smuggling. Melissa Reid, 20, was photographed smiling as she and other friends posed with hulking Shane Knowles (above) in Ibiza. The shot was taken soon before she claimed a gang on the Spanish island forced her and Michaella, 20, to become drugs mules. Tattooed Knowles, 37, lost an eye in 1999 when he was nearly beaten to death by an alleged associate of crime boss John Palmer, known as Goldfinger, in a Tenerife pub toilet.

Any excuse.

Peru drugs arrests: Melissa Reid and one-eyed crook pictured before she and Michaella were ‘forced to be mules’ (Irish Mirror)

Michaella Connolly and Melissa Reid claim they were threatened at gunpoint by a ruthless gangster called ‘The Cockney’ to smuggle cocaine out of Peru to Spain.

“They knew everything about us – who our parents were, what they did, their phone numbers, what friends we had. They even had photos of them and threatened to harm them if we didn’t do as they ordered.” They claimed they had loaded guns put to their heads after being handed over to a ruthless South American cartel and warned: “Do it – or die.”

Peru drug arrests: We were forced to smuggle cocaine with loaded guns to heads (Mirror)

Michaella McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon (left) and her friend Melissa Reid being questioned by a customs official in Lima airport, Peru, after the pair were detained as they were about to board a flight to Madrid, Spain.

The National Police of Peru said they found more than 24lb of cocaine hidden in food in the luggage of the two women.

Video: The Guardian

Drug Mule Suspect ‘Forced To Take Items (Dan Collins, Guardian)