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Pigeon Grounded After It's Caught Smuggling Drugs In Tiny Backpack

Pigeon Grounded After It's Caught Smuggling Drugs In Tiny Backpack

A homing pigeon in Kuwait is no longer flying high after it was caught carrying a tiny backpack filled with drugs, according to reports.

Kuwaiti customs nabbed the feathered drug mule while it was flying near Iraq’s border, Al Arabiya English reported.

Photos from news site show the bird wearing a light blue pouch cut open to expose a number of white pills.

Reporter Abdullah Fahmi, with the Kuwaiti paper al-Rai, told the BBC that the drugs were identified as a type of ketamine, which is an anesthetic that can be abused as a “club drug,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Some of its effects include hallucinations and amnesia.

Fahmi said this was the first time law enforcement officials there had caught a bird carrying such contraband, though they said they knew drug smugglers were using the bird-brained scheme.

In 2015, authorities in Costa Rica captured a similar drug-run by a pigeon. Prison guards reportedly found that bird carrying cocaine and cannabis.

A Costa Rican prison guard is seen holding a pigeon strapped with a bag filled with drugs in 2015.
Handout / Reuters
A Costa Rican prison guard is seen holding a pigeon strapped with a bag filled with drugs in 2015.

Then in 2011, police in Colombia reportedly found a pigeon struggling to fly over a prison wall because a large amount of cocaine and marijuana had been strapped to its body.

Unsurprisingly, social media users had a field day over the Kuwaiti pigeon.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.