Drug mule Michaella McCollum is almost unrecognisable, and is angling to be a celebrity

[Mr.TaLaL]

 

DRUG MULE Michaella McCollum has come a long way from the mosquito-infested prison in Peru.

She’s had a dramatic makeover and is now trying to capitalise on her infamy.

She has turned up the glamour after spending three years in a prison cell with seven other women for her failed attempt to smuggle £1.15m ($2m) worth of cocaine into Europe with her friend Melissa Reid.

She was originally sentenced to six years and eight months behind bars in Peru, but was released on parole in March 2016 after serving less than half her sentence. She was initially required to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work.

 

But now the 24-year-old is back home in the UK and she is doing her best to make sure all eye are on her as she parties hard.

This weekend she hit the tiles with Joshua Ritchie and David Hawley — stars from the reality TV show Ex On the Beach — in a bright red dress.

 

McCollum, who has undergone a recent makeover to include blonde hair extensions, completed her look with a Yves Saint Laurent handbag and cream heels as well as red nails and lips to match her thigh-high split dress.

This came just days after cosying up to former Premier League football star Jamie O’Hara.

But the night out didn’t go as smoothly as the convicted drug smuggler would have liked, with photographs appearing to show she had spilt wine down her red dress.

At one point, she could be seen turning to speak to Ex On The Beach star Joshua Ritchie, while clutching a cigarette in her left hand, along with a glass of wine.

 

Since her release, she has been on numerous holidays to Ibiza and Marbella — often spotted frolicking in the surf in a bikini.

And over the weekend, she made sure all eyes were on her yet again, striking up a conversation with former Spurs footballer Jamie O’Hara while the pair were ringside at Aaron Chalmers’ first MMA fight.

 

She has been photographed on various trips to the beach and in revealing gym kit during a trip to Majorca — which showbiz sources said was a bid to raise her profile and launch a career as a reality star.

She also donned a daring white dress while partying in Ibiza, having spent the week soaking up the sun with a friend.

Earlier this year, she was reportedly in talks to be on UK’s Big Brother — standing to make thousands through book and TV deals.

She recently signed with talent agency BLVK Management, apparently seeking to clean up her image with a series of documentaries.

 

She was spotted at a job centre just days after holidaying in Spain, swapping the Mediterranean for the dole queue in her home town of Dungannon, Northern Ireland.

A fellow job seeker told the sunday mirror “I was surprised to see her there after all the photos of her enjoying herself on holidays abroad.”

Meanwhile, the ex-jailbird’s brother Ryan McCollum, 29, appeared before magistrates back home in Dungannon, County Tyrone, on Wednesday morning.

He was found guilty of taking his best friend’s van without permission in order to spend time with a girl he had met earlier that night, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

With the sun