Pigeon wearing crystal meth 'like a backpack' caught inside B.C. prison yard

Nearly a century ago, a pigeon breeder approached federal customs officers with a bit of an odd problem.

A pigeon he'd recently sold to a buyer in Mexico had flown back to his home in Texas with two aluminum capsules full of cocaine tied to its legs.

After a brief investigation, officials announced their conclusion. 

"CARRIER PIGEONS SMUGGLE DRUGS," blared an all-caps newspaper headline on Feb. 2, 1930.

Drug-smuggling pigeons have persisted over the decades since, busted from North America to Europe and Asia.

The birds are caught with pills or powder stuffed into mini-backpacks, tiny baggies or zippered pouches — sometimes foiled because they couldn't get off the ground with all the weight.

Last week, for the first time in recent memory, one was captured in B.C.

"This is kind of a curveball," said John Randle, Pacific regional president of the Union for Canadian Correctional Officers.

Randle said it was a routine day after the holidays at Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, B.C., on Dec. 29.

Officers were standing in one of the fenced inmate unit yards, which prisoners use regularly for hanging out, playing games or just getting some fresh air.

Then the officers noticed something strange: a grey bird with a small package on its back.

"From my understanding, it was tied to it in a similar fashion as like a little backpack," Randle said.

The officers moved in.

"They had to corner it," Randle said. "You can imagine how that would look, trying to catch a pigeon."