(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

IRISH WOMAN MICHAELLA McCollum Connolly, 20, and Melissa Reid, 20, have been refused bail and remanded in custody pending trial on drug trafficking charges.

The pair were arrested two weeks ago at Lima’s international airport with 11 kilograms of cocaine.

The Judge Dilo Huaman rejected defence arguments that they had been threatened with death if they refused to carry the drugs. The judge asked them why they did not ask for help at Lima airport.

Connolly had previously been reported missing from her job on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean, and her family had launched an campaign to find her.

After their arrest, the women said they had been kidnapped by a drugs cartel, taken to Peru and forced to transport drugs. But Peruvian authorities did not buy the story.

The pair was led into court yesterday in handcuffs, as Reid’s father and Connolly’s brother looked on.

There was no word on a trial date, but some reports say the women could be held for up to three years awaiting one.

Connolly’s lawyer Peter Madden told RTÉ News they were effectively beginning a prison sentence.

Here are pictures of the women in court earlier where they are wearing each others outfits from the day before because they do not have clean clothes: