Excess Baggage Grounds Drug-Smuggling Pigeon

A drug-smuggling pigeon has been captured outside a Colombian prison after being overloaded with marijuana, police have confirmed.

Marijuana was packed in a white bag strapped 

to the pigeon's back

 

The pigeon was attempting to fly into a prison in Bucaramanga, in the country's north-east, with 1.6 ounces of the drug attached to its body.

However the bird's flight plan was thwarted because of the illicit excess luggage.

Two police officers were able to catch the bird as flapped helplessly near a house.

"This is a new case of criminal ingenuity," General Jose Angel Mendoza, Commander of Bucaramanga Metropolitan Police, said.

They were trying to smuggle drugs into Bucaramanga prison by using messenger pigeons," he said.

Colombian drug gangs have used ingenious techniques before - including a parrot trained to act as a lookout.

Colombian police caged Lorenzo the lookout

In the latest incident, police found the bird with a white paper package strapped to its back.

The pigeon was caught close to the prison and believe it had been trained by prisoners or their criminal associates.

"We found the bird about a block away from the prison trying to fly over with a package," General Mendoza said.

"But due to the excess weight it was impossible for the bird to accomplish the objective and it ended up being caught by the police."

Police also revealed carrier pigeons have been used in the past to transport mobile phone sim cards to inmates.

Caged: Drug Gang Parrot Lorenzo The Lookout  

A parrot that Colombian police claim was trained to act as a lookout for a drugs gang has been caged in the Caribbean coastal city of Barranquilla. 

Police Commander Fredy Veloza said Lorenzo had been taught to squawk a warning as security forces approached.

"We have a parrot that, as soon as the police arrived to the street in Barranquillita, the parrot alerted the people who were there by yelling, 'Run! Run!' so the people would run away," he said.

Despite Lorenzo's alarm call, police detained two suspected drug traffickers and seized weapons, a stash of marijuana and two other birds.

The birds were handed over to animal officials who said they have been given more than 1,000 birds trained as lookouts.

For decades, drug cartels have used Barranquilla as a staging area to smuggle illicit drugs north to the US.

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