Anger as Peru two’s Melissa Reid given VIP treatment after landing at Glasgow airport following three-year jail term
Cocaine runner’s celebrity-style transfer slammed as 'inappropriate'
DRUG mule Melissa Reid got a VIP welcome home from Peru for health and safety reasons, airport bosses claimed yesterday.
Reid, 22, was whisked away by van straight from the plane’s steps after touching down in Glasgow as terminal managers feared fellow passengers could get hurt in a media scrum.
But MSP Graham Simpson blasted the cocaine runner’s “inappropriate” celebrity-style transfer.
He said: “She was given VIP treatment because of who she is — a convicted drug smuggler. Airports usually make life hard for smugglers rather than roll out the red carpet.
“Maybe the other passengers should have gone through first before letting her through to prevent any problems?
“The irony is she received special treatment in an airport for breaking the law by trying to smuggle drugs through an airport. That’s a very inappropriate message to give.”
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Ex-top cop Graeme Pearson, who ran the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, added: “It’s reflects poorly that someone just out of jail gets treatment the average passenger does not.”
An airport source said bosses laid on the lift for Reid and her dad Billy due to the number of passengers arriving in a short space of time. The insider said: “It was a health and safety decision by the duty manager due to four international flights arriving one after another.
“We offered it to Reid — she was told there was a huge media interest out the front.
“The manager felt there was going to be a cursh when she came through and we wanted her away as quickly as possible.
“There was a pen put up for the media to prevent a crush in the terminal but that wouldn’t have stopped anything at the front door or car park. It maybe looks like VIP treatment but that was not the case.”
An airport spokesman added: “It was an operational decision.”
Reid had flown via Amsterdam from Lima Airport, where she got no special treatment, after serving three years for trying to smuggle £1.5million of coke out of Peru with pal Michaella McCollum, 23, of County Tyrone.
We told yesterday how Reid landed in Glasgow on Wednesday night and was driven out a side gate in an airport van.
Billy, 55, then drove her home to a reunion with mum Debra, 54. Two cops who called at the house yesterday got no response.
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