British Women Caught Smuggling Cocaine In Pork Rind Packages

Two young British women on vacation in Peru thought officials would think nothing of a pair of female vacationers innocently bringing some local snacks back to friends at home, but they didn't even make it to their plane before antidrug officials realized their snack bags were a front and arrested then for attempting to smuggle huge amounts of cocaine into the U.K.

Police searched the women's bags and found each had more than 13 pounds of cocaine hidden in foil-lined snack bags that had originally contained pork rinds and other snacks. That amount of cocaine is worth $2.3 million, according to the Daily Mail.

The women, 19-year-old Melissa Reid and 20-year-old Michaella McCollum Connelly, had spent the summer working in Ibiza, and police think they were recruited there to be drug mules in exchange for the vacation in Peru and $12,000 each.

Both the women were arrested and have not yet been formally questioned, as police are still waiting for an English-speaking translator. Major Manuel Sicilia, who is heading the investigation, said the women had "informally" admitted the smuggling but had yet to be formally questioned.

"Like anyone else involved in drugs smuggling, they will be tried and face long prison sentences if convicted. We take this problem very seriously in Peru and courts are very strict about enforcing the law," he said.