'Narco cat' with crack cocaine and marijuana strapped to it caught smuggling drugs into prison
Prison guards have discovered a 'narco cat' roaming around a Costa Rican jail with marijuana and crack strapped to its body.
According to a statement on Facebook from the country's Ministry Of Justice, officers at the Pococi Penitentiary spotted the unlikely smuggler on prison grounds on May 6 before capturing it.
Prison staff were suspicious of gray patches they spotted on the feline's fur and decided to take a closer look.
The odd looking patches turned out to be bags filled with narcotics - including a bag containing 236 grams of marijuana, and another containing 86 grams of crack cocaine.
Footage shows the moment prison officers spotted and caught the feline felon as it climbed a tree on prison grounds.
A separate clip shows how authorities carefully removed the illegal substances from the cat's body.
Once removed from the animal the drugs were seized by authorities and the cat was handed over to the National Animal Health service for an evaluation.
The Free Press Journal reported that it is common for animals to be used to smuggle narcotics into Costa Rican prisons.
Prisoners reportedly use food to lure the animals to them after they have been loaded with drugs by people on the outside.
The incident comes four years after authorities in Panama intercepted a fluffy white cat carrying an assortment of drugs in a pouch tied to its body as it tried to enter a prison.
The animal was stopped outside the Nueva Esperanza jail, which houses more than 1,700 prisoners, in the Caribbean province of Colon, located north of the capital Panama City, in 2021.
At the time, Andres Gutierrez, head of the Panama Penitentiary System said: 'The animal had a cloth tied around its neck' that contained wrapped packages of white powder, leaves and 'vegetable matter.'
Officials confirmed that they were likely cocaine, crack, and marijuana.
The 'narco cat' incidents come after the country's president, Rodrigo Chaves, took another step in his shift toward a tough-on-crime stance, announcing plans to build a new prison modelled on the maximum security prison in El Salvador.
In addition to building a new prison, Chaves said small shops selling things inside existing prisons would be shut down.
He also said permission for conjugal visits would be restricted and authorities would tighten the ability of families to bring food to inmates.
The restrictions were aimed at stopping drugs being brought into prisons and other illicit activities.
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Ex-Arsenal starlet jailed over ‘significant role' in plot to smuggle £600k of cannabis into UK from Thailand
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Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Why Brits are 'flavour of the month' for drug smuggler gangs: The pensioners and glam influencers recruited as drug mules on promise of fast cash and luxury holidays
British 'drug mules' are the 'flavour of the month' for criminal gangs and are being recruited on the promise of quick cash and the 'perfect package' luxury holiday, experts warned today. Attracted by the white sand beaches and bustling nightlife, party-going Brits are flocking to countries such as Thailand and Indonesia in their droves - but some are never making it home. That's because several Brits, mostly glamorous young women, are being lured into the murky world of drug smuggling which has left them facing lengthy sentences in hell-hole prisons or even the death penalty. But in a case that has bucked the trend, a 79-year-old British pensioner was arrested in Chile last week after a Mexican gang allegedly promised him £3.7million to smuggle a suitcase of crystal meth from Cancun. 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Then came 21-year-old Charlotte Lee May, from Coulsdon, south London, who is locked up in a Sri Lankan prison after police discovered 46kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis - in her suitcase when she arrived on a flight from Thailand. A flurry of similar cases have followed including 36-year-old OnlyFans model Clara Wilson, from Nottinghamshire, 21-year-old Cameron Bradford, from Hertfordshire, and 29-year-old Kimberly Hall, from Middlesbrough, who have all been arrested on suspicion of smuggling abroad. Many of these alleged smugglers face decades in prison. But at the most extreme end, three British nationals - Phineas Float, Jonathan Collyer and Lisa Stocker - are facing the death penalty over allegedly smuggling cocaine from the UK to Indonesia. Last week, it then emerged that 79-year-old William 'Billy Boy' Eastment faces dying behind prison bars after he was intercepted at Santiago Airport with £200,000 worth of meth. 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British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford has also been incarcerated inside Bali's hellish Kerokoban prison since 2013 after she was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle £1.6million worth of cocaine into Indonesia's capital from Thailand by stuffing it into the lining of her suitcase. But more recently, there has been a surge in drug seizures involving young women, who experts say share a commonality in being 'vulnerable' and wanting to travel the world. Mr Carroll, who spent 14 years in policing before becoming an expert witness, said: 'I think what we've seen is with the rise in social dominance of social media. 'It's created a gateway for suppliers to target and make connections with young, well-travelled, glamorous ladies and girls that are seeking that ability to travel the world and afford to do so. 'Smuggling drugs or packages where they're not entirely sure of the contents in exchange for free holidays and cash seems quite a lucrative offer.' 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Mr Carroll said: 'I don't want to detract from the ones where they are fully aware of what's going on, and it's just pure naivety and greed, which is certainly a dominant factor in a lot of cases. 'But these young girls are getting approached because - not to stereotype every young social media lad and female - but travelling the world is certainly a common denominator. 'It's pictures in foreign, exotic, lovely areas where the everyman can only dream of visiting, whereas these young ladies happen to be getting holidays there, and it makes people wonder,what kind of lifestyle they can lead. 'They do make for interesting targets for suppliers.' Asked who is targeting them, he added: 'With the people targeting on social media, it's introducing friends of friends. It tends to be UK nationals that are based abroad. 'The person there facilitating the whole transaction and importation, will likely be a British national, someone likes there. 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'It's anyone they think looks innocent enough to get through customs, and yet still be dodgy enough to do the deal.' He added: 'It may be that Brits are the flavour of the month - and I would imagine it's quite more likely that Brits are the flavour of the month with airport security.. That's why they are being picked up more, because they are being picked on more. They have limited resources, they can't stop everybody so they target it's a run on Brits, this could sustain for years.' Speaking about whether these mules are aware of the risks, Dr Holmes said: 'They will be given a routine such as what to do with burst bags or what to say when they are caught, i.e nothing. 'That is probably the limit of the instruction that they would be given because to be honest, the dealers don't care that much. You are just somebody who's working for them, and you don't give a s**t because you're likely never to do it again.' Mr Carroll said that it's often implied to the smugglers that the contents are not legal, but it is suggested that it could be something less serious than drugs such as jewellery with unpaid VAT or unethically sourced gold. The challenge for the courts is working out if the smugglers have 'naively' agreed to take packages without knowing there are drugs inside or if they are aware of what they are doing, he said. Dr Holmes said the type of suspect has changed over the years, making it even more challenging for Border Force to detect. 'You would have been looking at very poor people that have got nothing else, who are fairly desperate and easily bribed, or easily blackmailed into doing it,' he said. 'Young Brits, obviously, are more robust in terms of getting through customs - but it may be that they've been doing it for years and only just now are they catching on at customs that it might actually be this lot as well.' As well as the end destination of the drugs reaching the UK, the idea of being 'seen as more above board and less likely to be committing that serious crime', makes British nationals attractive for smuggling, he added. 'You do get some picked upon because they are loners and vulnerable, easily scared, desperate in some way,' Dr Holmes said. 'There might be one or two that want identity if there is nothing in their lives, if they are not achieving anything, and this would give them identity and make them feel special.' Just last night, it emerged another young Brit, Ms Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, in Hertfordshire, was stopped at Munich Airport on April 21 for allegedly smuggling cannabis from Thailand. It is thought Ms Bradford could now face at least four months in a German prison while authorities probe where the drugs came from. In a separate case this week, OnlyFans model Clara Wilson, 36, was allegedly found trying to smuggle around £200,000 of Thai cannabis into Spain. The mother-of-four from Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire, faces four years behind bars and potential fines of over £750,000 if she is found guilty. The European cases are far more lenient than those who are stranded in hell-hole prisons abroad. The trial of three Brits accused of smuggling cocaine or taking part in a drug deal on the island of Bali began on Tuesday, with all facing the death penalty in a nation with some of the world's toughest narcotics laws. Indonesia hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling and has previously executed foreigners, but has upheld a moratorium on the death sentence since 2017. Couple Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at Bali's international airport with 17 alleged packages of cocaine that weighed nearly one kilogramme. A lab test result confirmed that 10 sachets of Angel Delight in Collyer's luggage and seven similar sachets in his partner's suitcase contained 995.56g of cocaine, prosecutors claimed. Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages, was arrested two days later and is being tried separately. Bella May Culley, 18, from Billingham, is being held in prison in Georgia on suspicion of smuggling 14kg of cannabis from Thailand. Elsewhere in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested after police allegedly discovered 46kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis - in her suitcase. She is facing up to 25 years locked in a hellhole Sri Lankan jail - but she has insisted she has been set up. Meanwhile it was alleged last month that British beautician Kimberly Hall, 29, tried to trick Immigration and Customs Enforcement into deporting her so she could evade justice after being accused of smuggling $6.2million of cocaine into Chicago. Hall was caught carrying 43kg of cocaine through O'Hare Airport in August 2024 after getting off a flight from Cancun, prosecutors say. She was about to board a connecting flight home to the UK when she was apprehended. She is said to have admitted to investigators that she'd been given the bags during a trip to Mexico and asked to take them back to Manchester in England.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
El Salvador human rights lawyer demands public trial as police haul her before judge
A lawyer from a prominent human rights organization who has been an outspoken critic of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies demanded a public trial as police brought her before a judge in El Salvador Wednesday. Prosecutors sought to charge her with illegal enrichment and jail her for six months pending trial. Observers say the case against Ruth Eleonora López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities arrested López at her home on May 18. The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal. As she was escorted by police through the court building Wednesday, a shackled López with a Bible between her hands, shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial,' according to a brief video posted by Cristosal on X. 'The people have to know.' She had not made her initial appearance before a judge until Monday, more than two weeks after her arrest. At that hearing, prosecutors announced the illegal enrichment, different from the original embezzlement, and requested that she be held while they continue to investigate. Cristosal has been an critic of some of Bukele's policies, including the state of emergency giving him special powers that has now been in place for more than three years. 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
