Drug dealers will do anything to make sure their product reaches their clientele – obstacles be damned. Some have even resorted to using pigeons to do their dirty work.
It’s often said good help is hard to find and if you’re dabbling in the seedy underbelly of contraband consumables the sentiment can ring quite true. It is probably why these particular drug smugglers recruited some fine feathered friends, because if they get caught they won’t squeal to save their own skin (or feathers).
It was certainly the case for one pigeon who had their wings clipped (metaphorically, not literally) after it was brought into a police station after it was found with nearly 200 ecstasy pills.
The pigeon was formally arrested (I kid you not) after police discovered it was transporting more than 170 ecstasy pills between Kuwait and Iraq via a makeshift backpack.
According to The Mirror, carrier pigeons were being used as an easier and risk-free alternative for trafficking drugs. This particular pigeon had the unfortunate privilege of being picked up by the customs border at Kuwait.
Conveniently, authorities found the airborne drug smuggler flying above the customs department’s building. This can’t be a coincidence, maybe the drug dealers (or the bird) were being too confident and got careless, or maybe the pigeon was tried of its life of crime and turned the drugs over to the police in hopes of clemency.
Pictures of the bird with the ecstasy pills on the desk were taken after it was placed under arrest (again I’d just like to point out police arrested a pigeon).
You may be surprised to learn this isn’t the first time a bird has been caught trying to smuggle drugs, in 2015 a bird was caught after it attempted to smuggle cocaine and cannabis into a prison.
If you think using birds is an inventive way of smuggling illegal narcotics, it’s got nothing on what measure the Mexican cartels would go to just to get their drugs into America.
According to a report in November 2017, cartels have been using ‘makeshift bazookas’ to fire cannabis over the US border. The Arizona Daily Star reported a ‘tubular mechanism with a compressor’ had been discovered inside a small van which Mexican authorities believed was used to shoot the drug packages over the border into US territory.
A statement issued by the US Customs and Border Protection claimed:
… a variety of methods used to send contraband over the International Boundary Fence’ with the most common ‘lobbing softball-sized packages of marijuana over the fence.
Eric Feldman, an Assistant Special Agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations told the BBC World Service Inquiry programme:
The cartels are always looking for a guaranteed way to cross narcotics into the US and a sophisticated tunnel can allow them to cross large-scale loads. Last month we interdicted a tunnel in San Diego and seized more than 10 tonnes of marijuana.
Compare that to sending four guys across with 30 pounds of marijuana on their backs, who have to navigate the mountains, evade Border Patrols and arrange delivery – you can see the difference in profit.
We’ve seen a variety of clever attempts to disguise entrances, everything from pool tables, electric panels, hydraulic bathtubs, elevators. We saw an exit point in the US where each time they came through the opening, they filled it with concrete, painted it and re-carpeted it. That’s attention to detail.
I’m pretty sure these tactics weren’t mentioned in the Notorious B.I.G’s Ten Crack Commandments.
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