WHILE Michaella McCollum will be not be sorry to see the last of South American prisons, it will be with regret that she bids farewell to her friend Melissa Reid.
Forever linked as the `Peruvian Two', theirs is a friendship forged in the kind of hardship that would test the closest of bonds.
Indeed, few would blame McCollum if Glaswegian Reid's was a face she never wanted to see again.
For not only will it always be linked with the horror of incarceration in one of the world's worst jails, Peruvian police claim Reid was the reason the Irishwoman was recruited as a drugs trafficker by a South American cartel in the first place.
A year McCollum's junior, she is alleged to have helped convince the Co Tyrone woman to go on a cocaine run to Lima from Spain when their paths briefly crossed in 2013.
Colonel Tito Perez, from the Peruvian Drugs Unit, told the media: "I think it was Melissa who directed her to come to Peru but on the orders of the drug traffickers."
However, the pair have remained close, first denying in unison any knowledge of the drugs hidden in food packets in their luggage when they were uncovered by customs at Jorge Chavez International airport, then backing each other's claims of kidnapping at gunpoint before finally confessing together to the crime.
Behind bars too, first at Lima's Virgen de Fatima prison and later at the brutal Ancon 2 prison, where horrific conditions reportedly had McCollum hospitalised for a tropical infection, the women have continued to support each other.
Visitors have spoken of the "strong bond" between them.
However, Reid has chosen to pursue the option of a transfer to a Scottish jail, while McCollum opted for a parole that sees her remaining in Peru for now.
McCollum, whose family were living in Dungannon, and Reid, from Lenzies outside Glasgow, were caught with the haul at Lima airport on August 6 2013 attempting to fly back to Spain.
McCollum had hoped to become a nightclub dancer in Ibiza, but was told by bar owners she did not have enough experience, leaving her short of money and sleeping on the floor of an acquaintance's apartment.
She was reportedly introduced to the drug cartel through a `low level' drug dealer in The Amsterdam bar and flown to Majorca to meet Reid.
In a signed statement on October 1, the pair named members of the Colombian drug cartel behind the plot in return for a reduced sentence.
Peruvian prosecutor Juan Mendoza told the media that the women "were interested in the chance to make easy money" and risked all for a fee of around €5,000.
