Prosecutors are said to be seeking maximum 15 year prison sentences for the two British women
The two British women caught trying to smuggle £1.5 million of cocaine out of Peru have been formally charged, prosecutors have said.
Melissa Reid and Michaella Connolly face maximum prison sentences of 15 years if they are convicted according to the prosecutor's office in Callao, near the Peruvian capital of Lima.
The official charges come a day of after the women were pictured in handcuffs as they were escorted from the National Police anti-drug headquarters where they have been held for the last fortnight to the court house.
The girls are now expected to be transferred to prison, where they could have to wait years for their case to come to trial.
Reid and Connolly, both 20, were caught at Lima's international airport two weeks ago with 11kg of cocaine in their luggage - a stash thought to be worth £1.5 million.
They claim they were kidnapped by a South American drugs gang while working on the Spanish Island of Ibiza and forced at gunpoint to traffic the cocaine.
But police do not believe the girls' story, and prosecutors
are thought to want them to serve the maximum prison term after becoming
frustrated with their version of events.
A police source said they would want to make an example of the women by making them serve time in the notorious Santa Monica prison, said to be run by gangs and corrupt guards.
After being transferred to the prosecutor's office in Callao yesterday, Reid and Connolly appeared before a Peruvian prosecutor at the first formal hearing into their case, insisting on their innocence.
Officials examined their statements setting out their version of events, along with details of the police investigation, before both girls were formally charged.
They could now face a three-year wait in prison before their case comes to trial.
Peter Madden, Connolly's lawyer, said conditions facing the women in prison were not good, that they had been offered no food or blankets yesterday, and that he was concerned for their physical and mental health.
He said: "The conditions inside the holding cells are pretty grim. They are expected to lie almost on the floor. There is a sort of sponge bed which is not acceptable. It is not clean.
"They have not been offered any food. To me that is unacceptable."
He told MailOnline they were in a "dirty and cramped cell", and that he had requested mattresses for them.
He said: "Their mood has changed. They are both very shaken and upset."
Melissa Reid and Michaella Connolly face maximum prison sentences of 15 years if they are convicted according to the prosecutor's office in Callao, near the Peruvian capital of Lima.
The official charges come a day of after the women were pictured in handcuffs as they were escorted from the National Police anti-drug headquarters where they have been held for the last fortnight to the court house.
The girls are now expected to be transferred to prison, where they could have to wait years for their case to come to trial.
Reid and Connolly, both 20, were caught at Lima's international airport two weeks ago with 11kg of cocaine in their luggage - a stash thought to be worth £1.5 million.
They claim they were kidnapped by a South American drugs gang while working on the Spanish Island of Ibiza and forced at gunpoint to traffic the cocaine.
A police source said they would want to make an example of the women by making them serve time in the notorious Santa Monica prison, said to be run by gangs and corrupt guards.
After being transferred to the prosecutor's office in Callao yesterday, Reid and Connolly appeared before a Peruvian prosecutor at the first formal hearing into their case, insisting on their innocence.
Officials examined their statements setting out their version of events, along with details of the police investigation, before both girls were formally charged.
They could now face a three-year wait in prison before their case comes to trial.
Peter Madden, Connolly's lawyer, said conditions facing the women in prison were not good, that they had been offered no food or blankets yesterday, and that he was concerned for their physical and mental health.
He said: "The conditions inside the holding cells are pretty grim. They are expected to lie almost on the floor. There is a sort of sponge bed which is not acceptable. It is not clean.
"They have not been offered any food. To me that is unacceptable."
He told MailOnline they were in a "dirty and cramped cell", and that he had requested mattresses for them.
He said: "Their mood has changed. They are both very shaken and upset."
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