Two UK women were arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle about $2 million worth of drugs from Peru.

Melissa Reid of Lenzie, Scotland, and Northern Irish citizen Michaella McCollum could face up to 15 years in jail for trying to bring packages of cocaine out of the South American country.

For the past two weeks, the 20-year-old women have been in government custody since they were caught trying to board a flight to Madrid from Lima, with 24 pounds of coke in tow.

They'd hidden the drugs in packages of food stowed in their luggage when airport authorities stopped them.

McCollum's lawyer Peter Madden claimed both women intend on pleading not guilty to allegations of drug trafficking.

Reid and McCollum were transferred on Tuesday from holding cells to a nearby township called Callao, according to the BBC.

Overnight, they awaited the judge's decision.

"The charges came at the end of a difficult day for the two, who had spent two weeks inside a police cell in Lima without charge," Will Grant, correspondent for the BBC, reported. "When the women were eventually moved to the courthouse in Callao, it was under the full glare of the local and international media. Neither of the women speak any Spanish...in the short term, it is a situation they are going to have to adapt to as the Peruvian authorities are likely to take several months before the trail reaches court."

Madden said that might be an issue, especially given the conditions the women were kept in while waiting on word from the authorities. He told the BBC that the women hadn't eaten all of Tuesday, and that McCollum's family member was not allowed to see her.

"The conditions inside the holding cells are pretty grim," he said. "They are expected to lie on the floor, there's a sort of sponge-type bed which is just not acceptable. There are no blankets-it's not clean."

Both Reid and McCollum insisted that they were forced to shuttle the coke back to the Spanish Island of Ibiza, where they worked at a bar. They maintained that an armed gang recruited them to smuggle drugs, and they travelled to Peru as hostages.