Breaking Bad Pigeon Nabbed In Prison

Prison guards at the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, British Columbia were stunned last week when a pigeon arrived carrying contraband: about an ounce of crystal meth. The bird was attempting to smuggle the drug inside its wee backpack.

“This is kind of a curveball,” John Randle, Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers, told the CBC.

Contraband is usually smuggled into prisons via visitors, the mail, drones, or even prison staff. Carrier pigeons have also been deployed for this nefarious purpose for a long time (a New York Times headline from 1930 reads “Carrier Pigeons Smuggle Drugs”), but this is a first for Canada.

“We've been focusing so much on drone interdiction ... now we have to look at, I guess, pigeons again,” said Randle. “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.”

Prison investigators do not know if an inmate on the inside had trained the bird or if the trainer was an accomplice outside the institution. The BC prison has beefed up patrols to watch for any future drops, and the Correctional Service of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police  have launched a joint investigation into the matter.

The pigeon was let off easy, according to Randle, who said the bird was let go – after it was relieved of its luggage.

Photo credit: Ben Nelms / CBC