'Narco-pigeon' shot by Argentina police
Police in Argentina have shot a carrier pigeon that was delivering drugs to a jail, prison authorities say.
The bird was spotted flying into the grounds of the jail in the central city of Santa Rosa.
Officers discovered it was carrying a backpack containing sedative pills, marijuana and a USB drive, reports said.
The smuggling method had already been detected and was under investigation, Clarín newspaper reported.
It published a picture of the dead pigeon with a white backpack containing 44 pills of the sedative Rivotril, 7.5g (0.25 oz) of marijuana and the USB drive.
- Pigeon 'caught with backpack of drugs'
- Pigeon racing blamed for Indonesian divorces
- Homing pigeon 'Bermuda Triangle' explained
The Argentine prisons service had warned in 2013 that traffickers were using pigeons making between 10 and 15 trips a day.
Three people were arrested and 15 pigeons were seized after the 2013 investigation, Clarín said.
Earlier this year a pigeon carrying a backpack containing 178 pills of the drug ketamine was apprehended in the Gulf state Kuwait near the border with Iraq.