A cell phone, a battery, a charger, and headphones. That was the cargo carried by a cat in a bag tied to its back intercepted by the Penitentiary Police at the La Reforma prison in Alajuela, said the Ministry of Justice this Tuesday morning.
The cat was intercepted on April 16. The case is not the first. Iin fact, the second in less than a month. On March 22 another feline was intercepted with two cellular phones and two batteries.
In August 2015 a pigeon, dubbed “narco paloma” was found arriving at the prison with a shipment of cocaine and marijuana.
According to authorities at Justice, inmates smuggle cell phones to commit crimes from within the prison, typically phone scams, extortion and even ordering hits all from behind bars.
Justice says in 2017, officials confiscated 3,159 cellulars phones from jails and prisons across the country.
Meanwhile, a bill to block cellular signals within prisons is stuck in constitutional arguments and legislative process. The bill was introduced in April 2016.