Pigeon Caught Smuggling Ketamine Across Kuwait Border
Kuwaiti customs officials have captured a pigeon equipped with a miniature backpack carrying 178 ketamine pills, according to Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai. The incident took place near the customs building in Abdali, close to the Iraq border.
Customs officers, who had been tracking the pigeon, intercepted it after confirming suspicions that birds were being used for smuggling operations. Abdullah Fahmi from al-Rai confirmed to the BBC that this is the first recorded case in Kuwait of a pigeon being caught mid-smuggle.
While the method may seem unusual, similar cases have been reported globally. In 2015, Costa Rican prison guards apprehended a pigeon carrying cocaine and cannabis, and in 2011, Colombian police stopped a pigeon struggling to fly over a prison wall due to the weight of its narcotics load.
Pigeons, prized for their remarkable homing abilities, have been used for message delivery since Roman times — but now, they are increasingly being exploited for illicit purposes