'Narco-pigeon' caught delivering cocaine, marijuana to Costa Rican prison
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Among the many creative ways that drugs can be smuggled into prison, this one flies to the top of the list.
Costa Rican authorities said this week they have caught a pigeon strapped with a fanny-pack like bag containing 14 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of marijuana. It caught a guard’s eye, they said, when the odd-shaped bird was seen landing in the jail’s courtyard with a bag tied to its body.
The incident was the first of its kind at “La Reforma” prison at San Rafael de Alajuela, a city in the north-central part of the country, bordering Nicaragua.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After the Facebook post and tweet alert from the Ministry of Peace and Justice, Costa Rica’s social media flew into a frenzy making fun of the pigeon. Many took to Twitter to even create a fake news alert saying that all pigeons were in cahoots together and were planning to take over San Jose if they didn’t receive their “compadre” back.
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The hashtag #NarcoPaloma which means “Narco Dove” started trending throughout the entire country, as people began creating memes and slogans.
The Telegraph reported that the bird was handed over to a zoo, where it is being kept under observation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Because of the way it came to us, it can never be freed,” a zoo worker told local media, according to the paper. He said the bird was reluctant to eat, probably because it had become used to being hand-fed by one person.
This is not the first time that a pigeon has been used to transport illegal substances. Two years ago, authorities in Argentina captured a pigeon that had a little pouch of marijuana tied to its leg. The officers released the bird in order to follow it and realized that it was making up to 20 deliveries a day in Lomas de Zamora.
And in January 2011, a carrier pigeon was caught in Bucaramanga, Colombia, a block away from the local prison, with cannabis and cocaine paste. According to BBC News, the pigeons have also been used to previously drop mobile phone Sim cards there.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The director of Costa Rica’s prison police, Pablo Bertozzi, said he had seen cases of cats being used to transport drugs strapped to their tails, but never a pigeon. According to the Telegraph, he said the incident would lead to a redoubling of efforts to clean the jail of controlled substances.
“The real problem is that there is a lot of consumption. If there weren’t consumers, the drugs wouldn’t be arriving”, Bertozzi told the paper.