A police raid in Brazil has recently netted an unlikely suspect: a parrot that allegedly warned targeted drug dealers of the police presence, shouting “Mom, the police!”
Brazil’s press was awash in reports about the so-called papagaio do tráfico–drug-trafficking parrot–a green-feathered bird in the poverty-stricken Vila Irmã Dulce community in Piauí, which had allegedly been trained by its crack-dealing owners to alert them in case of such a raid.
One officer involved in this operation said:
“He must have been trained for this. As soon as the police got close, he started shouting.”
The parrot, as well as the local couple with whom it lived, were seized by police in the raid.
A reporter that encountered the incarcerated look-out bird noted that the creature was “super obedient,” keeping its beak sealed upon being taken into custody by the state.
The journalist added that the bird practiced its right to remain silent, explaining:
“So far it hasn’t made a sound … completely silent.”
Local veterinarian Alexandre Clark confirmed that the parrot wasn’t snitching, noting:
“Lots of police officers have come by, and he’s said nothing.”
Reports from broadcaster Globo also added that the country’s government would likely be lenient on the perpetrator parrot, having granted custody of the bird to the local Teresina zoo where it’ll learn to fly before being released after three months.
The bird’s owner, under the nickname India, had been arrested twice previously for drug trafficking, while Edvan, her husband, was arrested for possession of crack cocaine during the raid.
Their 16-year-old daughter, who was found hiding cannabis in her underwear, was released with a stern warning.
According to the Guardian, several animals have frequently been associated with criminal drug gangs in the South American country, but most of them were reptiles.
A 2008 drug raid in western Rio de Janeiro led to the seizure of two small alligators by police, that claimed the local criminal syndicate would feed their enemies to the gators as a means of terrorizing rivals as well as disposing of their corpses.
The father of one of the accused rejected the accusation, though, explaining that when the gang had attempted to feed a corpse to one of the alligators, it refused to dine on it.
In other regions in Latin America, birds known as narcopalomas have also been used to fly drugs into prisons in both Costa Rica and Argentina.
In 2017, Argentine police shot a carrier pigeon down as it flew into prison, after which it was found to have been carrying over a quarter-ounce of cannabis, 44 Rivotril pills and a USB thumb drive in a miniature backpack sewn into its feathers. Police noticed the pigeon flying in and out of prison over several days before intercepting the bird.
Earlier the same year, Kuwaiti authorities captured a pigeon carrying 178 ecstasy pills, also in a small backpack.
Reference: The Mind Unleashed
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