An Irish student being held in Peru on suspicion of drug trafficking could have been under police surveillance.
Michaella McCollum Connolly (20) from Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, faces up to 25 years in prison after she was arrested, along with another traveller, at Lima Airport on Tuesday. They are being held on suspicion of trying to traffic €1.7 million of cocaine out of the country, and could face a minimum of seven years in prison. Sentences are usually lighter for those who plead guilty early on.
Michaella can be held for up to 15 days incognito, which means her location isn't known, but she is thought to be at a prison close to the airport - where she and a fellow Scottish traveller, Melissa Reid, were stopped - allegedly with 5.5 kilos of cocaine each in their baggage.
In Peru, the larger the amount of drugs, the longer the potential sentence.
Michael Russell is Ireland's former honourary consul in Lima - he held that position until last month. Listen to his interview with Newstalk's Breakfast below:
Michaella was reported missing by her family - after not contacting them for 12 days from her home in Ibiza.
He says people who agree to carry drugs out of the country, after being approached by a third party, are often quickly apprehended because they are transporting a marked bag, or because police have been tipped off about their arrival.
Prison conditions
Prisons in Peru are overcrowded and often unclean. Access to money however can give access to better food, a better holding cell and improved conditions generally.
The procedure in Peru is that after a foreigner is arrested at the airport on charges like Michaella's, they are taken to a holding cell at a building owned by the drugs squad. Authorities don't usually hold people for the maximum allowable 15 days. After three or four days a suspect is usually taken to a small prison in the Department of Justice, where evidence is presented to a judge who decides if a trial will be held - in this case a trial will definitely be held.
It's expected that information about Michaella's upcoming trial will emerge today.
