Brazilian inmates were found to be using carrier pigeons to smuggle cell phones onto a prison farm in the south eastern state of São Paulo, according to information from the police of Brazil.
Police inspector Celso Soramiglio said that guards at Danilo Pinheiro Penitentiary, a prison near the city of Sorocaba in the interior of the state of São Paulo, caught a pigeon last Wednesday with components of a small cell phone inside a bag tied to one of its legs.
A day later, another pigeon was found with a bag containing a cell phone charger. The birds apparently were bred and raised inside the prison, smuggled out, outfitted with the cell phone parts and then released to fly back.
Soramiglio noted that pigeons "instinctively fly back home – always". He added police photographed the pigeons and then released them
The use of pigeons to smuggle contraband into jail is the latest twist in an ongoing struggle by criminal networks to deliver forbidden goods into Brazil's prisons
Previously, the use of birds has been focused more towards smuggle contraband such as drugs, weapons, and money. The use of animals both for the prevention and innovations of crime is a worldwide phenomenon.
Mercopress
