BIRDS COURIER HEROIN

DRUG traffickers in Pakistan are using carrier pigeons to beat the
latest technological advances in surveillance.

The Daily Times of Pakistan, quoting intelligence sources, said flocks
of pigeons were being used by Afghan and Pakistani drug traffickers to
carry their wares from Afghanistan to Pakistan where the traffickers
are mostly based.

The homing pigeons being used by the traffickers have their lofts in
safe custodies in the villages along the western frontier region of
Pakistan.

From Pakistan it is mostly the Afghan refugees who carry the pigeons
packed in small cages to the bordering villages of Afghanistan where
make-shift drug refineries are located in areas controlled by various
Afghan warlords.

About 10g of heroin is stuffed into a bullet-shaped tin capsule which
is then fastened to one leg of each of the pigeons. The hungry and
thirsty pigeons are released from Afghanistan, and in one to two hours
fly to their lofts in Pakistan where the heroin capsules are collected
by the traffickers.

For the traffickers it involves very little risk as birds are immune
to the latest technology used by the anti-narcotics taskforce in Pakistan.