Pigeon Escobar!

Our Correspondent, Faridpur

Pigeons have now too turned towards illicit drugs, unfazed by the ongoing anti-narcotics drive, something jail officials in Faridpur were surprised to discover.

While in the past homing pigeons were used for sending messages over long distances, their new profession is proving to be a headache for law enforcers from Iran to Costa Rica to now even Bangladesh.

Police officials everywhere have now begun dealing with this menace of a winged drug supplier, one who works without encrypted software or any verbal communication that can be surveilled.

Faridpur Jail officers were shocked to discover a pigeon with 100 grams of marijuana wrapped around its body in the jail compound.

The discovery was made at 2:45 pm on July 23.

Abdur Rahim, superintendent of Faridpur Jail said, “Rashedul Islam, a warden, found the pigeon inside the jail with marijuana wrapped around its body. But we could not find the owner of the marijuana and we later released the pigeon.”

He added that the jail, established in 1825, currently housed 1,150 inmates and “almost 50 percent of them were drug addicts”.

“The drug addicts are desperate for drugs and often cause nuisance inside the jail,” he said.

Explaining the desperation, Amanullah, a jailor, said “On August 1, a convict, managed to carry cannabis in his anus while he was coming back from court.”

“Drugs are frequently tossed into the jail compound from outside despite the presence of around 10 wardens both inside and outside the jail,” Abdur said. He suspected that the pigeon was also tossed in from outside.

“If we have a boundary wall in our jail, it will not be possible to do this.” 

For now, the pigeon has flown away but whether it has changed its ways or not could not be known.