Story By: Joseph Golder / Newsflash
This is the moment a driver is caught with five live pigeons hidden in his socks by customs officers as he tried to smuggle them across the border.
The birds were found during a customs inspection in the cab of a freight vehicle at the Ubylinka checkpoint on Russia’s border with Latvia, officials said in a 4th December statement.
Officers said they discovered the undeclared live pigeons packed among the driver’s personal belongings, as can be seen in the footage, which shows them in a suitcase tightly wrapped in the socks.
They reported that the driver had placed each pigeon in a sock to transport them.
The pigeons are seen lying immobilised and tightly packed in a small suitcase.
Authorities said two administrative cases were opened against the driver for failing to declare the birds.
They added that the man issued with an administrative penalty in the form of a fine.
Officials stated that, due to the lack of accompanying documents, the pigeons were left in Russia.
It is currently unclear if the man wanted to sell off the pigeons for racing competitions, which can fetch large sums of money.
In May, police teams from several European countries had uncovered an international network of traffickers dealing in racing pigeons and arrested three people in Belgium and Romania.
The group had been targeting pigeon trainers who had won competitions. And officials said at the time that the value of the racing pigeons could reach several million euros.
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