Police seize parrot for tipping off alleged drug dealers

Police in Brazil took a parrot into custody Monday after it alerted two alleged drug dealers to authorities’ presence, according to The Guardian.

As police prepared to raid a suspected drug den in the northern state of Piauí, the bird yelled “Mamãe, polícia!,” Portuguese for “Mama, police!,” according to the report.

{mossecondads}“He must have been trained for this,” an officer involved in the operation told Brazilian broadcaster Globo. “As soon as the police got close he started shouting.”

Despite the bird’s efforts to warn its owners, a man and teenage girl, the suspected crack dealers were also arrested, according to The Washington Post, citing local reports.

Police have reportedly attempted without success to make the bird say other phrases.

“So far it hasn’t made a sound … completely silent,” one journalist who encountered the parrot said, according to The Guardian.

The bird has been handed over to a local zoo, where it will be released after learning to fly, according to The Guardian, citing Globo.

The “papagaio do tráfico,” or “drug trafficking parrot,” as it is being described in local reports, is hardly the first animal to be seized by Brazilian authorities tracking drug cases, according to The Guardian.

In one 2008 case, police seized alligators in a Rio de Janeiro raid. While police believed local gangsters had fed enemies to the alligators, the father of one of the accused claimed the alligator had refused to eat corpses thrown to it.