Drug dealing gang who used carrier pigeons to distribute cannabis across …

Dealers made up to 20 deliveries a day to a distributor in Lomas de Zamor
Police investigated after finding one of the pigeons 'lost and disorientated'
‘It was released and we were able to follow it', officers said
Three men have since been arrested at a makeshift cannabis farm

By
Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:

23:34 GMT, 26 August 2013

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UPDATED:

23:34 GMT, 26 August 2013

Drug dealers who used carrier pigeons to distribute marijuana across Argentina have been arrested.

Prosecutors say the dealers made up to 20 deliveries a day to a distributor in Lomas de Zamora, who would collect the drug from pouches on the birds’ legs.

Police began to investigate after finding one of the pigeons lost and disorientated with drugs strapped to its leg.

Drug dealers who used carrier pigeons to distribute marijuana across Argentina have been arrested

A spokesman said: ‘It was released and we were able to follow it. Then it was a question of waiting and following again.’

Three men were arrested at a makeshift cannabis farm.

In 2011, Colombian drugs gangs reportedly strapped a package containing 1.6 ounces of the drug to a pigeon and pointed it in the direction of the jail in Bucaramanga.

But the excess baggage proved too much for it. The bird crash-landed and was captured by two policemen who found it flapping helplessly near the prison.

Prosecutors say the dealers made up to 20 deliveries a day to a distributor in Lomas de Zamora, who would collect the drug from pouches on the birds' legs

At the time Bucaramanga police chief Jose Angel Mendoza was reported to have said: 'This is a new case of criminal ingenuity.

'They were trying to smuggle drugs into the prison by using messenger pigeons.

'We found the bird about a block away from the prison trying to fly over with a package, but due to the excess weight it was impossible for the bird to accomplish its objective.'

Colombian drug gangs often resort to unusual techniques and once used a parrot trained to act as a lookout.