Cat Busted Ferrying Pot to Cons in Moldova Prison

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They busted a cat for smuggling pot into a prison in Moldova. Prison guards became suspicious about the feline, which routinely entered and left the prison through a hole in a fence, when they noticed its odd collar. On closer inspection, they found two packets of marijuana attached to it. On Friday, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions said that someone in the village of Pruncul used the cat as a courier to supply inmates with dope at the local prison. Whoever the human was, this wasn’t a first regarding cat couriers at lockups. In June, guards caught a cat carrying mobile phones and chargers taped to its belly to inmates in Penal Colony Nr 1 near the city of Syktyvkar in northern Russia.

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Prison guards nabbed an audacious cat after they caught it red-handed trying to smuggle two bags of cannabis into a prison in Moldova. Now, the prison authorities are looking for the moggy‘s trainer, who they believe may live in the nearby village of Pruncul, supplying inmates with illegal drugs for some time. Prison officers became suspicious of the grey and white cat, which regularly came and went through a hole in the fence, when they noticed it was wearing a peculiar collar. When they apprehended the cat, they found two packets of marijuana attached to it. The Justice Ministry posted a video of the find online. It showed one officer gently stroking the bemused cat whilst removing the purple collar. Then, a second officer cut through two lumps in the collar, to reveal cannabis in its herb form. Yesterday, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions said that someone in the nearby village of Pruncul was using the cat as a courier to supply inmates with the drug at Penitenciarului Nr 9 prison.

It isn’t the first time that someone used cats in Eastern Europe to evade capture by prison authorities. In June, guards caught a cat carrying mobile phones and chargers taped to its belly to inmates in Penal Colony Nr 1 near the city of Syktyvkar in northern Russia. In August last year, police in Rostov Oblast foiled a plot to use a cat to smuggle heroin into a prison, according to a report in the Moscow Times. Inmates took the cat out of the prison following their release, smuggling the animal out in their bags, giving it to drug dealers waiting outside. Then, they stuffed the drug into the cat’s collar, and released the animal, which sneaked back into the prison. In a similar case in 2010, a prison do killed a heroin-carrying cat whilst trying to enter a prison in Tatarstan. Inmates in Arapiraca, in Brazil’s northeastern Alagoas state, also used these evasion tactics. Earlier this year, guards caught a cat trying to slip through the gates with tools, including a saw and a drill, tapped to its body.

19 October 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/world/20131019/184234646/Cat-Caught-Carrying-Marijuana-Into-Moldovan-Prison.html

Daily Mail (London)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2467213/Drug-smuggling-cat-caught-carrying-cannabis-parcels-Moldova-prison.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

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Cons Use Cats to Smuggle In Mobiles at Russian Prison in the Komi Republic

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Frequently, inmates in Russian prisons bribe guards to obtain mobile phones. However, what about using cats as couriers? Guards patrolling a prison colony in the Russian North saw a feline on a fence… it seemed to be carrying something. Taking a closer look, they found a few mobile phones and chargers taped to the cat’s belly. On Monday, the RF Federal Prison Service reported that this happened on Friday at Penal Colony No. 1 near Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic, 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) northeast of Moscow. It wasn’t clear how the cat was supposed to drop off its loot.

4 June 2013

Associated Press

As quoted in the Albany (NY) Times-Union

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cat-detained-on-illegal-mission-at-Russian-prison-4572138.php

24 March 2013. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Global Event “Earth Hour”: History, Purpose, Participants

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Click here for an “Earth Hour” image gallery

The World Wildlife Fund sponsors “Earth Hour” annually. On the last Saturday in March, at 20.30 local time, all participants turn off lights and electrical appliances for an hour. This is the fifth “Earth Hour” held in Russia; last year, about 20 million people in Russia took part in it. According to WWF, about 70 Russian cities will participate in the action in 2013. The WWF specifically mentioned that Moscow, St Petersburg, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Lipetsk, Serpukhov, Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Vologda, Nizhny Novgorod, and Syktyvkar would have special events. For the first year, Novy Urengoy will take part.

In Moscow, on 23 March, more than 80 buildings will plunge into darkness for an hour. On Saturday, the main attractions of St Petersburg… the Winter Palace, Palace Square, and the Petropavlovsk Fortress… will turn off their architectural and artistic lighting. The same thing would happen at St Petersburg State University, as well as at Troitsky Bridge, Blagoveshchensky Bridge, Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge, and Aleksandr Nevsky Bridge.

A giant ball, symbolising planet Earth will be set on fire in Nizhny Novgorod on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The organisers of the action said, “The contours of the Earth’s continents would burn only for a short while, thus, presenting a representation of the limited and exhaustible basic resources used by mankind”. The event will take place on Markin Square near Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Residents of Krasnodar shall place candles outside a shopping mall on Stasov Street. The candles will have the inscription “Kuban +” as a symbol that the Krasnodar Krai joined the “Earth Hour” event. The shopping mall will turn off all its lights and signs.

23 March 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/infografika/20130322/928492089.html

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20130323/180186908/Earth-Hour.html