Pigeon wearing crystal meth ‘like a backpack’ caught inside B.C. prison yard | 24CA News

Nearly a century in the past, a pigeon breeder approached federal customs officers with a little bit of an odd drawback.

A pigeon he’d just lately bought to a purchaser in Mexico had flown again to his dwelling in Texas with two aluminum capsules stuffed with cocaine tied to its legs.

After a quick investigation, officers introduced their conclusion. 

“CARRIER PIGEONS SMUGGLE DRUGS,” blared an all-caps newspaper headline on Feb. 2, 1930.

Drug-smuggling pigeons have endured over the many years since, busted from North America to Europe and Asia.

The birds are caught with tablets or powder stuffed into mini-backpacks, tiny baggies or zippered pouches — generally foiled as a result of they could not get off the bottom with all the burden.

Last week, for the primary time in latest reminiscence, one was captured in B.C.

“This is kind of a curveball,” stated John Randle, Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers.

Officers ‘needed to nook it’

Randle stated it was a routine day after the vacations at Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, B.C., on Dec. 29.

Officers had been standing in one of many fenced inmate unit yards, which prisoners use frequently for hanging out, enjoying video games or simply getting some recent air.

Then the officers seen one thing unusual: a gray chicken with a small bundle on its again.

“From my understanding, it was tied to it in a similar fashion as like a little backpack,” Randle stated.

The officers moved in.

“They had to corner it,” Randle stated. “You can imagine how that would look, trying to catch a pigeon.”

After “a lengthy period of time,” the officers apprehended the chicken, eliminated its cargo and set it free.

Randle stated the bundle contained about 30 grams of crystal meth, which he described as a “fairly substantial” quantity of the intensely addictive stimulant.

“It’s definitely scary with the fact that it was crystal meth that was found on the bird because that causes a whole lot of problems,” he added.

Corrections Canada confirmed in an electronic mail it’s investigating, however wouldn’t present additional particulars.

Drones usually the issue

In latest years, corrections officers have more and more been looking out for drones dropping contraband into correctional amenities. Last month, a drone dropped a firearm into Mission Institution.

Since the drone crackdown, Randle stated smugglers could be turning again to “old school” strategies like pigeons or “throwover” — the place somebody outdoors lobs a bundle over the fence.

“We’ve been focusing so much on drone interdiction … now we have to look at I guess pigeons again,” stated Randle, who hasn’t heard of one other stay pigeon incident in B.C. in his 13 years of expertise.

“It’s a bit of a reality check for us that that the creativity that people are going to use to try and smuggle drugs and other contraband into the institution is multifaceted.”

Homing pigeons have been used to hold messages for the reason that Roman Empire, significantly valued through the First and Second World Wars for his or her potential to navigate lengthy distances to return to their dwelling lofts with key messages. 

One professional stated there are two believable methods to make use of a pigeon to ship medication. One, somebody may throw the freighted pigeon over the fence into the jail.

Second, an inmate may spend months coaching the chicken from the within to acknowledge the jail as its dwelling. Someone would get the chicken to the outdoors, fasten its cargo and launch it to return “home” to the jail.

“Like Shawshank Redemption, where he had a crow from a baby — you could do that with a pigeon. Then, yeah, the pigeon would come back,” stated Givo Hassko, director of the Vancouver Poultry & Fancy Pigeon Association.

“It’s sad in a way, where the pigeons once were used for for saving lives is now being used for smuggling,” he added. “But I hope they they figure it out.”