Italian beauty queen linked to drugs mule Melissa Reid

An Italian beauty queen has been linked with the same criminal kingpins who recruited Scottish drugs mule Melissa Reid.

Peruvian authorities believe former Miss Italy finalist Samantha Scarlino currently languishing in an Italian jail was part of the same criminal network of female smugglers that stretches from South America to Europe.

The 32-year-old, from the Puglia region and a regular on Italian TV, was busted as part of a cop swoop that landed 21 others in jail.

Italian authorities believe the TV host made a number of trips to Peru to transport cash to and from South American gangs.

She was caught red-handed in the middle of a deal in a plush Milan hotel late last year with South American drugs destined for Belgium, Holland, France and Spain the country where the cocaine found on Reid, from Lenzie near Glasgow, was heading.

Now Peruvian prosecutors have said they believe Scarlino who took part in Miss Italy in 1999 was involved with the same drug gangs as Reid and Northern Irish pal Michaella McCollum.

The country’s police chief Jorge Meija said: “The drug cartels are capturing beauty queens to transport cocaine and dirty money. They are seduced by the charm of the tickets, luxury and power.”

Meija added drug traffickers were recruiting attractive women to throw off custom cops. Meanwhile, any hopes of Reid being moved to a Scottish prison could still be a long way off.

The family had hoped she’d mark her 21st birthday in August in Scotland and had applied for a prison transfer in March. But it is far from being a done deal.

“There is no definite date for a transfer,” a prison spokesman said. “These things take time and it’s more a case of ‘how long is a piece of string’.

“The paperwork is still with the prison service and hasn’t gone for ministerial approval yet.”

Reid and aspiring model McCollum were nabbed at Peru’s Jorge Chavez Airport with more than £1.5 million worth of cocaine last August.