Police in Argentina Confiscate Drug Ring's Narco-Pigeons
A group of small-time traffickers used pigeons to transport their weed.
Aug. 23, 2013— -- Drug laws seem to constantly push narcotics traffickers to new heights of creativity. The latest example is the use of pigeons as marijuana carriers.
That’s right. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a small-time group of dope dealers trained two white doves to carry pot from a safehouse where they were growing the stuff to a building where they were selling it to distributors.
Argentine police busted the group earlier this week and confiscated their pigeons. Officials said that the birds carried up to 13 grams of weed in each flight, in small pouches tied around their necks.
An image from Argentine news channel CN5 shows one of the weed carrying pigeons. If you look closely you can see a small pouch attached to its neck
Police also said that, because the distance between both buildings was short, these carrier pigeons could actually ship substantial amounts of weed every day.
“We talked to pigeon trainers and they told us that these pigeons were capable of making up to 20 trips per day,” Nesto Larrauri, a police chief in Buenos Aires told journalists.
“With pigeons they could ship their drugs without taking any risks.”
Pigeons have been used to deliver messages for centuries.
When they are properly trained, these birds will always return to their home nest or coop, even if they must start their journey hundreds of miles away.
In World War I, the French and German armies moved around the Western Front with a few cage loads of pigeons. The birds were used to send messages from the front lines to their coops at headquarters.
Police said the pigeons involved in the Buenos Aires drug trafficking scheme were housed in the building where their owners sold marijuana. They would be driven to the house where the pot was produced, and once they were loaded with merchandise, they would faithfully go back home with 13 grams of weed strapped around their neck.
So now you know. Drugs can not only be transported in breast implants, or launched across the U.S. border with catapults: Pigeons can carry them, too.
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