Drug mule suspect shared flat with killer’s daughter

Drug mule suspect Melissa Reid was sharing an Ibiza apartment with the daughter of a notorious gangster.

The 20-year-old of Lenzie, near Glasgow, jetted off to the party island with a friend, 19-year-old Rebecca Hughes in June.

Rebecca’s dad, David, was convicted of the gangland execution of a crooked businessman in 2009.

David Hughes and associate John Maguire lured Andrew Best, 44, to a garden centre in Cumbernauld before launching a frenzied attack, stabbing him 16 times and leaving him to die by the side of the road.

At the time of the attack Best and Maguire were the target of a massive undercover police drug probe, codenamed Operation Meadow.

Hughes had flown into Scotland from Amsterdam just hours before the brutal killing.

We can reveal Hughes’ daughter Rebecca is a close pal of Peruvian cocaine plot accused Melissa Reid, and they shared an apartment in the Las Pyramides complex in San Antonio Bay in Ibiza.

Former call centre worker Melissa and Michaella McCollum Connolly, from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, were stopped as they attempted to board a flight to Madrid.

Police said they found more than 24lb (11kg) of cocaine, with a street value of £1.5 million, in food packaging in their luggage.

An insider revealed: “The Serious Organised Crime Agency are liaising with the Peruvian Police and there’s little doubt they will be asked to check out Melissa’s claims that they were forced to traffic the cocaine.

“As part of that investigation it’s likely that they would want to speak to the people who spent time with her in Ibiza.

“Rebecca has returned to Scotland now, but has not yet been interviewed by police.

“Her family are relieved to have her home and that she wasn’t caught up in what happened.”

The trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard how Hughes and Maguire phoned Best at his Stirling home and asked him to meet them in Cumbernauld.

As soon as the 44-year-old parked his van, Hughes opened its door and began attacking him with a knife.

Eyewitnesses then saw Best staggering on the road near Dobbies Garden Centre waving one arm trying to attract attention.

He was holding his throat with his other hand and his clothes were drenched in blood.

Best and Maguire were the subject of undercover police surveillance but not on the day of the murder.

Police officers who arrived at the scene attempted to give him first aid.

When they asked him who had attacked him, he answered : “Davie Hughes”.

Sentencing Hughes to life with a minimum term of 16 years, Lord Matthews said: “There was obviously an element of pre-planning and premeditation.

“I don’t know if murder was intended or simply to assault him, but the crime of murder was committed.”

Hughes was also reportedly the knifeman who slashed Hollywood star Tommy Flannagan outside Reds, a Glasgow nightclub.

The 47-year-old, who starred in Braveheart and Gladiator and Sons Of Anarchy on TV, said of the attack: “They tried to mug me for my jacket and record boxes.

“One guy jumped on my back, slashed my face, stabbed me, cut me to bits. I nearly died.”

Yesterday there was no sign of Rebecca at the family home in Bishopbriggs.

A woman who identified herself as her gran answered the door and confirmed her granddaughter had been Melissa’s flatmate in Ibiza.

Rebecca’s cousin, Alisha Storrie, who lives at the property, told our reporter how she had visited the pair in Ibiza.

When questioned about Rebecca’s father’s criminal past she said: “I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything.”

A spokesman for SOCA, the UK’s lead organisation on the drugs trade, said: “This is a Peruvian-led operation. We can’t confirm or deny we are part of it.”