Pigeons used to smuggle phone parts into Brazilian prison

Sao Paulo, March 31 (EFE) Brazilian police have intercepted two trained homing pigeons that were being used to carry mobile phone parts into a prison in Sao Paulo state.

The birds were found near the prison with cloth sacks tied to their backs containing parts and components for cellphones, as shown by police representatives to Globo television.

The tactic of training pigeons is not new when it comes to smuggling items into Brazilian jails, and there have been several similar cases in recent years.

Last June, during a search at Marilia prison, also in Sao Paulo state, the police arrested a woman who was taking two pigeons hidden in her purse out of the prison.

In that case, in addition to ferrying cellphone parts into the prison, the birds also transported drugs inside the facility.

Homing pigeons are able to fly back to the spot where they were raised, in this case within the prison, and so it was relatively easy for them to get around the normal security measures set up by authorities to intercept items smuggled inside in other ways.