ADVERTISEMENTThere have been local reports of a mini helicopter drone dropping 250 grams worth of what is thought to be cocaine onto a Brazilian prison. According to Brazilian news source Globo, the prison, Centro de Detenção Provisória 1 is 60 miles north of São José dos Campos and currently holds 1,605 prisoners.
São Paulo’s secretary of Corrections claims that at 10am on 7th March, the drone dropped the package onto the prison yard. The prisoners are said to have crowded around the parcel making it impossible for prison officers to gain access to the mysterious load until later that day when a search of each individual cell had to be carried out.
The package of white powder has been taken by São Paulo’s civil police to be analysed and verified. No conclusions have yet been made however Brazilian local news suspect local drug traffickers.
The active imagination of drug smugglers
The use of drones would just be the latest in a long line of tactics drug traffickers have used to try and smuggle their stash.
Alternative forms of transport have included giant catapults used to launch huge amounts of marijuana across from Agua Prieta, Mexico to Arizona, according to the Associated Press. Similarly, homemade cannons used to shoot marijuana across from Mexico to California have been confiscated by the Mexican authorities. The Discovery Channel has also reported that smugglers in Timbiqui, Colombia were found using a submarine to transport an average of eight tonnes of cocaine every trip from Colombia to Mexico.
Launching drugs through the air is one thing, but these next few drug smuggling attempts are even more bizarre:
Police in Peru found 680 kg of cocaine in a giant frozen squid, according to NBC news. If the journey had been successful the drugs would have fetched $17 million (12 million euros) on the street. NBC news also noted the discovery of bibles full of cocaine as well as teddy bears of Sesame Street’s Elmo each holding 18kg of crystal methamphetamine. In Barcelona a woman was found to have breast implants full of cocaine. The woman, from Panama, was taken to hospital after arriving at the airport with bloody bandages wrapped around her chest. Doctors removed two breast implants containing 1.4 kg of cocaine.
Pringles cans full of cocaine moulded into crisp shapes were found in Texas according to Discovery. A man was also arrested at Washington Dulles International airport for attempting to smuggle 150g of cocaine hidden in sealed clam shells.
Coffins have also been used as an effective form of drug smuggling; known for this type of trafficking is the notorious heroin dealer Frank Lucas, active in the late 1960s. Lucas used coffins of dead American servicemen killed in the Vietnam War to transport the drugs from the east to America. The 2007 film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington recounts the police investigation to bring down Lucas.