Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid made no comment as they were taken to the court
Two UK women arrested in Peru on suspicion of drugs smuggling have arrived at court to find out if they are to be charged.
Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, and Melissa Reid, from Lenzie near Glasgow, both 20, are accused of trying to smuggle 11kg (24lb) of cocaine.
The pair were stopped while trying to board a flight to Madrid two weeks ago.
They have maintained that they were forced by an armed gang to carry the drug, which was in their luggage.
Both women say they were forcibly recruited as drug mules by the gang while working in bars in the Spanish island of Ibiza and travelled to Peru under duress.
Police said the cocaine had a street value of £1.5m.
Weekend newspaper reportsBBC correspondent Will Grant reported that Ms McCollum and Ms Reid were taken from their cells in Lima at 07:00 local time (13:00 BST) on Tuesday and transferred by police escort to the neighbouring province of Callao, which has jurisdiction over their case.
He said the women were given a brief medical exam before being taken to the public prosecutor's office, where they are required to give full statements.
The BBC's Will Grant: "This could be a lengthy legal process"
Once this has been completed, the women are expected to be moved to Callao's Justice Building, our correspondent added.
They will then hear the charges against them and enter their pleas. It is not yet clear if they still intend to enter a not guilty plea.
Our correspondent said that once pleas had been entered the pair were expected to be placed in a holding cell within the Justice Building, ahead of transfer to a women's prison later this week.
On Monday, Ms McCollum's solicitor Peter Madden - who had travelled to Lima with Ms McCollum's brother Keith on Friday - criticised some of the press coverage of the case.
Over the weekend some newspapers had reported on the Ibiza drugs scene and had questioned the women's stories.
Mr Madden said he had shown some reports to his client, who he said "totally denies" the contents.
Also over the weekend, the head of Ibiza's police investigation into drug trafficking, First Sergeant Alberto Arean Varela, cast doubt on the claims that the women were coerced into trying to smuggle drugs out of Peru, saying they had several opportunities to alert the authorities.
Peru's anti-drug police's lead investigator, Tito Perez, told the BBC his unit had been checking into the women's version of events by travelling to the hotels they had stayed in.
Officers had also gathered video evidence from the city of Cusco where they claimed the drug gang had taken them.
The report is due to form the basis of the pre-trial hearing which will determine what the two young women will be charged with.
If refused bail, they could face up to three years in jail before trial.
Legal experts in Peru suggest the normal charge in such a case would be of drug smuggling, which carries an average sentence of eight to nine years in prison.
If they are accused of being members of a criminal organisation, they could face harsher sentences.
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