Drug dealer nabbed: Carrier pigeon carrying cocaine and marijuana in a bag

The Telegraph reports that the homing pigeon was spotted at a prison near San Jose, Costa Rica, with a bag tied to its body. The winged drug mule-cum-narco folk hero caught ferrying drugs to La Reforma Penitentiary in Alajuela was remanded to ZooAve Animal Rescue Center in La Garita on Wednesday, according to a Facebook post from the organization. When the pigeon was inspected, the black zipper bag was found to contain 14g of cocaine and the same amount of marijuana.

A pigeon was busted as it attempted to smuggle cocaine and cannabis into a prison in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Justice and Peace released the animal’s mugshot under the headline caption “narcopaloma“, meaning “drugs dove”, and listing the date of the animals detention.

“Because of the way it came to us, it can never be freed”, a zoo worker told local media, adding that the bird was reluctant to eat, probably because it had become used to being hand-fed by one person.

“This is nothing new”.

Prison officials said they believe the drugs were destined for use by an inmate who may have trained the pigeon to act as a courier.

In Argentina in 2013, police intercepted a bird transporting marijuana from a dealer to clients, while a carrier bird that was used to smuggle drugs into a Colombian prison was captured by authorities in 2011.

“We have a warning that this method can be used again as it is not the first time in the history of La Reforma that a pigeon was detected with drugs”.

Although police did not find anything usual, they kept the bird in custody and logged it as “a suspected spy”.