Canada has recently made headlines for the oddest reason, stemming from law enforcement apprehending a pigeon in a drug smuggling scheme.
For context, the incident occurred in Pacific Institution, a correctional facility in British Columbia, last month after police officials spotted the bird carrying what appeared to be a tiny package in the prison yard.
On January 6, during an interview with CBC News, John Randle,
the facility’s regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers, opened up about the ordeal and how they were able to catch the pigeon.While describing what the bird had on its body, Randle said, “This is kind of a curveball. From my understanding, it was tied to it in a similar fashion as like a little backpack. They had to corner it. You can imagine how that would look, trying to catch a pigeon.”
Further in the conversation, Randle disclosed that when the officers finally captured the pigeon, they collected the package that contained thirty grams of crystal meth. Following that revelation, Randle stated that it was scary to know that type of drug was “found on the bird,” given the harm it causes to individuals taking the substance. “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.”
Since the bust, Randle, who has never seen anything like this in 13 years in his field, brought up how this incident caused police officials to become more alert to the unique ways that people will try to smuggle drugs. He said, “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.”
Prior to this event, officers had to worry about drones bringing drugs and weapons into the facility, which would later cease. At this time, the pigeon smuggling plot is still under investigation, and no other details have been released.