Michaella McCollum became known as one half of the infamous Peru Two when she was arrested in Lima airport in 2013 for trying to smuggle €2million of cocaine.
The then 19-year-old from Northern Ireland, along with Melissa Reid from Scotland, had been on the party island of Ibiza when they were offered £5,000 to transport class A drugs.
It became one of the most well-known drug trafficking cases and the pair were nicknamed the Peru Two following their highly publicised legal case.
They were each sentenced to six years and eight months in prison in December 2014 but served less than three.
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The Peru Two both returned to their respective homes but their story has since been the topic for numerous documentaries, with Michaella writing a tell-all memoir about her time in prison.
Almost nine years later, here is all you need to know about what Michaella is up to now in her personal life:
Drug smuggling
Michaella, from Dungannon in County Tyrone, went on a fun-filled holiday to Ibiza in Spain in 2013, where she became caught up in its drugs and partying lifestyle.
She met an acquittance who groomed her over a series of dates and was then offered £5,000 to become a drugs mule.
At first she thought she was travelling to mainland Spain, along with Scottish girl Melissa, but it soon soon emerged that they were being sent to South America.
The two were were caught at Jorge Chávez International Airport on August 6, 2013, with 11kg of cocaine in their suitcases, hidden in cereal packets, worth almost €2million.
Their case made international news, with Michaella's hairstyle soon becoming a talking point as she styled her hair in a big high bun on the top of her head.
In an extract from Michaella’s memoir You'll Never See Daylight Again in 2018, she admits: "Was I guilty? Yes. Did I know what I was doing? Sort of.
“Was I hung out to dry by a bunch of gangsters and the Peruvian justice system? Absolutely.”
Time in prison
Michaella was jailed for six years and eight months in a Peruvian prison in December 2014 but was released on parole after two years and three months in March 2016 - with Melissa also released in June of the same year.
She was sent to to the notorious Virgen de Fatima prison in Lima while awaiting her trial before being moved to Ancon 2 prison.
Michaella recalls the horrors she saw behind bars in her shocking 2018 memoir You'll Never See Daylight Again, recalling how she slept on concrete beds and ate food that was often riddled with bugs.
In her book she also recalled witnessing countless scenes of lesbian sex happening right in front of her.
During her time behind bars, Michaella took up a course in beauty therapy in a bid to become a hair stylist.
Early release
Michaella applied to be freed on parole in 2016 and was granted early release in March of that year.
She was forced to stay in Peru for a number of months before arriving back to Dublin Airport on August 13, 2016.
TV appearances
Upon her release, Michaella did a controversial post-jail interview with RTE in April 2016 which was criticised on social media at the time for its soft questions, such as: "Did you know your hairstyle became news?"
The Peru Two were also featured on the Channel 4 documentary Brits Behind Bars: Cocaine Smugglers, which aired on 10 October 2015, and detailed how drug mules are trained.
A two-part BBC documentary series High: The Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule was released in July 2021 retold the story of her memoirs - how a teen from Northern Ireland came to be involved in drug smuggling.
Family life
Michaella, now 28, is a single mother to adorable twin boys who are nearly four-years-old.
She became pregnant during a short relationship and in May 2018, announced to her followers on social media that she had welcomed twins, Rafael Genie and Rio Addison.
It was later revealed that she left the father's name off their birth certificates, which keeps his identity a secret.
In her memoir she writes: "I was in denial when I found out I was pregnant - 'how did this even happen?'
"And then I was even more shocked when I found out they were twins. My family were like, 'Only you… everything extreme happens to you'."
Career
Michaella is currently followed by over 73,000 people on her verified Instagram account, where she regularly shares glamorous photos of herself along with cute snaps of her sons.
Her Instagram bio reads that she works in 'network and marketing'.
She has said in interviews that her experience in prison was transformative and following her release, she went on to pass three A-levels and is studying for a degree.
