Peru: Police seize cocaine inside live turkeys
Peruvian police were expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys. However, they were surprised to discover the drug surgically implanted inside the birds.
Acting on a tip, police officers in Peru were puzzled when they found the turkeys in the crate, but didn’t find the cocaine, Tarapoto’s anti-drug police chief Otero Gonzalez told The Associated Press. They then noticed that the 2 turkeys were bloated.
“Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam,” he said.
A veterinarian extracted 11 oval-shaped plastic capsules containing 1.9 kg (4.2 pounds) of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9 kg (6.4 pounds) from the other, he said.
Both turkeys reportedly survived the removal.
Police were searching for whoever sent the shipment from Juanjui to Tarapoto, which is on a smuggling route from Peru’s east Andean coca-producing valleys to northern coastal cities, where it is sold to Mexican and Colombian traffickers, reports state.
Source: The Associated Press
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