CONVICTED drugs smuggler Michaella McCollum is back in her native Co Tyrone after flying home to Ireland following her release from jail in Peru.
The 23-year-old was understood to have rejoined her family in Dungannon, three years after being arrested for trying to smuggle cocaine out of the South American country.
It is understood relatives greeted her at Dublin after she arrived on a flight from London on Saturday night.
She had flown out of the Peruvian capital Lima the previous night.
McCollum made no comment to waiting journalists.
She and Scottish woman Melissa Reid were jailed for six years and eight months in 2013 after admitting trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5 million from Peru to Spain.
McCollum was released on parole in March after serving less than half her sentence.
Reid returned home to Scotland in June.
Under the terms of her release McCollum was expected to remain in Peru with Irish-American Archbishop Sean Walsh and carry out work with HIV and AIDS sufferers
She was awaiting a judicial hearing to decide when she could return home.
In 2015 former Stormont justice minister Minister David Ford approved an application for her repatriation back to the north.
Both McCollum and Reid were arrested in Lima airport as they tried to fly to Spain.
They initially claimed they had been kidnapped and forced to carry 11kg of drugs hidden in food packets inside their luggage.
But the pair later admitted trying to smuggle cocaine and pleaded guilty.
Originally facing the prospect of up to 15 years behind bars, the pair struck a plea bargain to secure a lighter sentence.
After being transferred to Lima’s Ancon Two prison they reportedly endured horrific conditions including cramped cells and poor sanitation and toilet facilities.
While serving her sentence it was reported that McCollum caught a tropical disease and had to be treated in the prison’s hospital.
In an interview with RTE broadcast in April, she acknowledged the potentially devastating consequences if the drugs she was smuggling had made their way back to Europe.
"I probably would have had a lot of blood on my hands," she said.
"I potentially could have filled Europe full of a lot of drugs.
"I could have potentially killed a lot of people, not directly but I could have caused a lot of harm to people."
She said she had been "very naive, so young and very insecure".
"I made a decision in a moment of madness. I'm not a bad person. I want to demonstrate that I'm a good person."
