Police took a parrot into custody in Brazil on Monday after it warned two drug dealers about an undercover raid, authorities confirmed this week.
According to local reports, when the parrot noticed police officers Tuesday at its owners’ house in Teresina, it squawked, “Mum, the Police!” in Portuguese.
Despite the bird’s best efforts to alert its owners to the raid, police successfully arrested a man on charges of drug trafficking. Crack and heroin were found at the property as well as large quantities of money.
Police officers believe the parrot had been trained to spot police vehicles. “He must have been trained for this,” said one officer involved in the operation. “As soon as the police got close he started shouting.”
The parrot was taken to the police station where officers attempted to extract information from it. However, it reportedly refused to talk to police officers.
“So far it hasn’t made a sound … completely silent,” local vet Alexandre Clark, who was brought in to communicate with the bird, told O Globo. “Lots of police officers have come by and he’s said nothing.”
The bird has since been relocated to a zoo in Teresina, where it will spend three months learning to fly before being released back into the wild.
This was not the first time that animals have been implicated in the country’s drug trade. In 2008, police captured two small alligators following a raid on a favela in western Rio de Janeiro, claiming that drug barons had fed their enemies to the animals.
Drug trafficking is a major issue in Brazil, with various major gangs and cartel funneling millions in profits from the trade.
In February, authorities successfully carried out a major drug trafficking bust that resulted in the arrest of 26 people and the seizure of several planes in an operation that required over 400 federal police officers. The network of individuals had allegedly transported nine tons of cocaine between 2017 and 2018.
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