Show use pigeons to smuggle drugs new problem presented as birds bring dope over mexican border san antonio texas carrier pigeons have been added to other dumb smugglers which must be watched by federal cil customs officers along the mexican border and barc narcotic abic here the birds are being extensively used for smuggling narcotics into this country etwas it was dee declared lared by cu customs inspectors here and are proving the must difficult problem for the officials to solve dogs does donkeys and oven even cattle have been isad used to smuggle dope in the past but it ans declared that only recently have pigeons been employed to any extent of course the ai amount of the alie drugs that one hiie bird can carry is small but a small aluminum capsule attached to each leg 1 Is sald to contain from 5 to lilo 10 worth depending on the kind and the undercover market prices the officers attention was first attracted to the birds aben a san antonio pigeon fancier whose nanie name the officials declined to divulge informed them that a pigeon sold by him several months ago had returned horne with a esip capsule sule attached to each leg investigation showed the capsules contained cocaine the fancier explained explain eil that chehad he had sold twenty pigeons some time before to a mexican whose name he did not remember no record was made of the sale one avoids new home the fancier aided the officers in attempting to trace the birds without success ile he explained that the purchaser no jjr doubt had taken the birds to some place ID texas and confined them in a loft until lie he believed bell eved were broken to the new home an and would return there when release they were then sent to mexico there laden with dope and and released the bird which returned to its f for or mer owners loft Is said to live have been an old one and these are declared to be very hard to break to another loft the others were younger and no dou doubt bt returned to their new home each with its cargo of narcotic it Is believed the fact that san antonio Is the center of an active pigeon racing association complicates the work of the officers no races are flown from mexican points it Is said on account of fast flying falcons in that country which have caused the loss of ninny many birds in former years when san antonio and monterey fanciers held two way races these races were abandoned on account of the falcons there has always been some trade with mexico in homing pigeons in I 1 n spite of the danger from falcons in that country and shipments across the 1110 ahto grander grande from san ran antonio caused no suspicion until it was found that they were being used for smuggling even now officers said it Is hard to keep track of shipments of birds although Alex mexican ican officers cooperate in the work birds shipped to border points tire are easily smuggled to other points and released birds sound alarm clock once the birds are arc released intercepting them Is said to be impossible A flying pigeon Is a common sight anywhere and the homing variety does not stop until it reaches its home lort loft it enters the lie loft through a trap equipped with an alarm clock and the owner can detach the contraband im medin mediately tely and it Is shotguns would not avail against the birds even if the border patrol should see them while in flig flight lit the carrier on long flights Is always out of arige of even convy shot an and even in range their speed would make them a difficult target the horder border is being watched for shipments of pigeons but officers are confident as ninny ai anre e smuggled a cross across as are shipped openly it Js an easy matter to confine birds in a has bas ket bet and ship them across the illo 1110 grande it was declared once across the woric Is easy the unerring horning instinct of the pigeons does the trick officers point out that as far as they knew only one bird had been fou found nd with the goods on it and that was the one thid that returned to Us its former home thousands have been shipped across the border it if was declared the more trips the bardi inake the better for the smugglers they become after a pigeon has been flown over the same route two or three times it will he be off like a shot as it Is released if the territory in which the bli bird djs h released la Is strange to it some time will be lost in getting orientated orienta ted Smug smugglers glera raising own birds OfIl officers cers here have requested pigeon fanciers to keep records of s sales ales which Is being done but it is believed that many smugglers have established lofts and are now breeding their own pigeons the birds are prolific an and it Is not uncommon for a pair to raise as many as ten pairs within a year these TheR eten ten pairs descendants of smugglers will no doubt the next year be smugglers and in return breed smugglers it t Is feared officers report finding dogs and donkeys used as drug smugglers but as a rule the animal although it carries more than a pigeon can be used but once as the success of its mission costs its life the drug Is usually fed j to the animal in a large metal capsule and the animal released on the other side of the rio grande to hid find its way back honie home when it arrives across the river where it lins has been kept for some soine time and in welt well fed it la Is killed hilled to obtain the drug pigeons cannot only be used again and again but they can be used for conveying the drug greater distances the long distances only cutting the weight of the loud load one thousand III miles lles tin an be covered by a good fast bird easily but it Is not believed the home lofts of the smuggling birds are located that far from their sources of supply |