Peru: Cocaine Smuggled Inside Live Turkeys

Police 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 two 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 kilograms (4.2 pounds) of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9 kilograms (6.4 pounds) from the other, he said.

Gangs often use human couriers who swallow cocaine to sneak it across borders but it is unusual to use animals. In 2005, Colombian police found a total of 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of heroin sewn into the bellies of six puppies during a raid on a veterinarian clinic.