24-yr-old Michaella McCollum has broken her silence about her imprisonment in Peru last year.
The Tyrone native has jailed in 2013 in South America after she was caught with her Scottish friend, Melissa Reid. carrying more than €1.5 million worth of cocaine in their luggage.
The pair were often dubbed by the media as the “Peru Two”.
Back in her native land, the Northern Ireland woman wrote a Facebook post and embraced her well wishers by thanking them all for their support and her family for getting her through the past few years.
Ms McCollum said:
“Now that i have the chance i just want to thank everyone who has supported myself and family through these past few years. Please know i truly appreciate each one who cared and had my back. Thank you for all the sweet messages i have not got reading them all just yet or got a chance to reply to them but i will definitely make a good attempt to get back to you all. It has been a long ride to get where i am today ? but it just shows that when we fight hard enough for something we can achive it. Something to have in mind When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
Have a great weekend everyone. Lots of love 
?”
Ms McCollum has always claimed she made a bad decision in a moment of madness.