Cat-Caine: Puss Busted Smuggling Drugs Into Prison

Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

Video Credit: CEN

Prison guards easily spotted this drug smuggling cat trying to bring a packet of cocaine into a prison because it was bright white.

The startling scene as guards arrest the cat were recorded at the Nelson Mandela prison in the province of Limon in Costa Rica.

In the video, two armed prison guards can be seen cornering a white cat in a fenced area of the prison.

Pictures Credit: CEN

One of the guards manages to pick the cat up and brings it towards the camera.

The moggy can be seen with a package around its neck which the guards then take off.

Inside the package is a white bag which local media report contained 158 grams (5.5 ozs) of cocaine.

Local media report a cat carrying 286 grams (10 ozs) of marijuana as well as a charge and a hands-free device for a mobile phone was also caught this week at Costa Rica’s main prison, the Institutional Attention Centre Jorge Arturo Montero, known as La Reforma.

Nils Ching, the sub-director of the prison police, told local media: “These new challenges call for us to keep being strong as a police force and to keep using tools such as CCTV cameras and to support the culture of prevention of violent situations and the promotion of the peace.”

Reports state Costa Rican prisons are often full of cats which are now being used by the prisoners to smuggle contraband into the facilities.

In 2015, a pigeon with 14 grams (0.5 ozs) of cocaine and 14 grams (0.5 ozs) of marijuana tied to its body was caught at the La Reforma prison.

Prison authorities said that the bird had been trained to fly into the prison to take the drugs to prisoners.

A recent report said that Costa Rican prison are overcrowded by 31.6 percent and the authorities plan to build 700 more new spaces for prisoners this year. There are currently spaces for 11,000 prisoners in Costa Rica.