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Prison officials in British Columbia were shocked recently when they discovered a pigeon in the yard wearing a “backpack” with crystal meth inside of it.
“This is kind of a curveball,” John Randle, Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers, told the CBC.
So now, in addition to cocaine bears, zombie ants, meth gators, weaponized ticks, murdering housecats, and nuclear crocodiles, we’ve got meth pigeons.
Actually, meth pigeons aren’t even new, it’s just the choice of drug that’s changed.
As the CBC points out, an all-caps newspaper headline way back on Feb. 2, 1930 read, “CARRIER PIGEONS SMUGGLE DRUGS.”
Anyway, as for this particular meth pigeon, it was by some prison officers in one of the fenced inmate unit yards walking around with a small package on its back.
“From my understanding, it was tied to it in a similar fashion as like a little backpack,” said Randle.
After a “lengthy” chase, the prison guards finally caught the bird.
“You can imagine how that would look, trying to catch a pigeon,” said Randle.
Inside the pigeon’s pack was 30 grams of crystal meth.
“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,” said Randle.
In recent years, corrections officers have increasingly been on the lookout for drones dropping contraband into correctional facilities. Last month, a drone dropped a firearm into Mission Institution.
Since the drone crackdown, Randle said smugglers might be turning back to “old school” methods like pigeons or “throwover” — where someone outside lobs a package over the fence.
“We’ve been focusing so much on drone interdiction … now we have to look at, I guess, pigeons again,” said Randle..
“It’s a bit of a reality check for us that the creativity that people are going to use to try and smuggle drugs and other contraband into the institution is multifaceted.”
As for the fate of the bird, since it was a first-time offender, the prison officers decided to set it free with just a warning.