Costa-Rica: A Raid To Catch A Cat Smuggling Cell Phones Into Prison

Published on December 3, 2019 at 12:00 AM by Lindsay Wilson

Quite a strange animal. In Costa-Rica, a little feline was being used to smuggle mobile phones, sim cards and chargers into a prison. And they only managed to catch the cat after hours and hours of searching. And this commando raid really tested the nerves of the authorities.

The cat was hiding in the sewers and it took prison guards at ‘La Reforma’ prison in San Rafael de Alajuela five hours to locate and catch it.

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‘It was very difficult for us because it had snuck into the sewer systems. So, it took us a long time,’ admitted Pablo Bertozzi, the Costa Rican Penitentiary Police Chief, to journalists.

Once the cat had been apprehended, prison guards discovered a small bag around its neck containing mobile phones, chargers and sim cards.

According to the AFP, authorities were worried about mobile phones being used in the prison for phone scams.

This isn’t the first time that an animal has been used to get contraband into the ‘La Reforma’ prison. In 2015, a pigeon with drugs attached to its feet was also intercepted.

This idea was then replicated by prisoners in Argentina in 2017 where guards caught a bird transporting 7 grams of marijuana and about forty Rivotril pills. After the investigation, the Argentine Federal Penitentiary Service noticed that pigeons were being carefully trained by drug dealers to get things inside the prisons. The birds could make between 10 to 15 trips a day.