According to Brazilian media reports, a parrot who was trained to alert its drug-dealing owners to approaching police officers has been taken into custody.

Plotting with a parrot

Reports in the Brazilian press have stated that local drug dealers taught a parrot to alert them in case of police raids in Vila Irma Dulce (a low-income community in the capital of the Piaui state). If there was ever a police operation in the area, the parrot would shout: Mum, the police!

Sure enough, during a police raid on the drug trafficker’s den, the parrot was seized and taken into custody.

The bird has not been named, but one officer said that he must have been trained to keep watch on the premises.

As soon as the police got close he started shouting, the police officer said. The parrot was said to have been described as a super obedient creature by a Brazilian journalist who went to visit him. So far the bird hasn't made a sound since being captured with a local vet confirming the parrot had not cooperated.

Lots of police officers have come by and he has said nothing, the vet said.

What now for the drug trafficking parrot?

Brazilian broadcaster Globo said the parrot has been handed over to a local zoo for three months, so that he can learn how to fly before being released into the wild.

Not just parrots!

Yep, it seems like using animals in the drug trade is not as rare as it seems. Birds are just one of many animal types implicated in Brazil's drug trade. In 2008, police seized 2 alligators during a raid in western Rio de Janeiro, where apparently local gangsters had fed their enemies to the animals. However, according to the father of one of the accused gangsters, this was not true. He said the gang had tried to do so, but the alligator had refused to eat the corpse.

Heard of any other drug-related pets?

Source: The Guardian

Photo used for illustration purposes only.

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