A second pigeon wearing a tiny makeshift backpack presumably meant for smuggling drugs was found inside a British Columbia prison recently.
The incident occurred nearly two months after one other bird was found carrying crystal meth at a neighboring prison.
Officers found a pigeon wearing a backpack possibly made out of cut-up jeans contained in the Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford on Feb. 27 during a routine search, John Randle, the Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers, confirmed to The Post on Thursday.
“From what officers described, it was blue jeans for the pouch and what gave the impression to be bed sheets for securing it to the pigeon,” Randle said.
The Abbotsford Police Department also confirmed that they’re investigating an incident from Feb. 27 that involves a pigeon, but couldn’t give The Post any further information.
Randle said the bird’s backpack was empty, leading prison guards to consider that the bird was in training.
He added that the bird can have entered the medium-security prison through an open window or through considered one of its recreation yards, where inmates can spend time outside.
The union believes that inmates use old blue jeans or bedsheets to make the backpacks for the birds.
Recruiting homing pigeons to smuggle drugs into prison is an old-school technique that has been used for many years on account of their ability to fly long distances and return to return to their sender.
Recently, the officers union has seen more drones getting used to smuggle drugs.
“A pigeon in itself can only carry a small amount of medication, where the drone can carry 10 or 20 times what a pigeon could at any given time,” Randle explained.
“So the drones are still our biggest priority but that is just type of a little bit of a curveball so far as detecting stuff from coming into the infusion contraband.”
Back in December, a carrier pigeon was detained on the Pacific Institution correctional facility near Vancouver after it was discovered to be carrying a backpack that contained crystal meth.
“The query is: Did either pigeon land in the precise spot, or did they land within the improper spot?” Randle said, adding that the union and police agents “have great concern” for the birds’ unpredictability.
He was especially apprehensive about “those wildcard variances with using a live animal versus a human-controlled drone.”
A second pigeon wearing a tiny makeshift backpack presumably meant for smuggling drugs was found inside a British Columbia prison recently.
The incident occurred nearly two months after one other bird was found carrying crystal meth at a neighboring prison.
Officers found a pigeon wearing a backpack possibly made out of cut-up jeans contained in the Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford on Feb. 27 during a routine search, John Randle, the Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers, confirmed to The Post on Thursday.
“From what officers described, it was blue jeans for the pouch and what gave the impression to be bed sheets for securing it to the pigeon,” Randle said.
The Abbotsford Police Department also confirmed that they’re investigating an incident from Feb. 27 that involves a pigeon, but couldn’t give The Post any further information.
Randle said the bird’s backpack was empty, leading prison guards to consider that the bird was in training.
He added that the bird can have entered the medium-security prison through an open window or through considered one of its recreation yards, where inmates can spend time outside.
The union believes that inmates use old blue jeans or bedsheets to make the backpacks for the birds.
Recruiting homing pigeons to smuggle drugs into prison is an old-school technique that has been used for many years on account of their ability to fly long distances and return to return to their sender.
Recently, the officers union has seen more drones getting used to smuggle drugs.
“A pigeon in itself can only carry a small amount of medication, where the drone can carry 10 or 20 times what a pigeon could at any given time,” Randle explained.
“So the drones are still our biggest priority but that is just type of a little bit of a curveball so far as detecting stuff from coming into the infusion contraband.”
Back in December, a carrier pigeon was detained on the Pacific Institution correctional facility near Vancouver after it was discovered to be carrying a backpack that contained crystal meth.
“The query is: Did either pigeon land in the precise spot, or did they land within the improper spot?” Randle said, adding that the union and police agents “have great concern” for the birds’ unpredictability.
He was especially apprehensive about “those wildcard variances with using a live animal versus a human-controlled drone.”
