Costa Rica prison guards catch a cat carrying 235 g of marijuana
Prison officers at the Penitenciaría de Pococí in Limón stopped a domestic cat that had 235.65 grams of marijuana and 67.76 grams of crack paste taped to its body. The drugs were seized and the cat was handed to the animal health service; no arrests were reported.
🇨🇷 Penitenciaría de Pococí, Roxana, Pococí canton, Limón Province · Costa Rica
Costa Rican prison officers at the Penitenciaría de Pococí caught a domestic cat
that was carrying a package of drugs towards the prison’s interior.[1]An
officer in one of the watchtowers spotted the animal in a green area of the
prison and raised the alert.[2]Guards found the animal with two packets taped
to its body.[3][4][5][6]
One packet held 235.65 grams of what the authorities described as marijuana.[1][4][7][6]The other held 67.76 grams of what the Justice and Peace Ministry called
crack paste, a cocaine product, which is not counted as cannabis here.[2]Officers also found two sheets of rolling paper.[2][4]The Prisión Policía seized
the drugs and began investigating where they came from and where they were
going.[2]
The ministry called the intervention a success because the packets never reached
the inmates.[3]The prison is in Pococí canton on the Caribbean side of Costa
Rica.[3]
El País reports the incident took place in early May.[1]According to other
reports, the capture happened on the night of 6 May 2025.[2][4]
The officers removed the packets, seized the drugs and handed the cat to the National Animal Health Service (Senasa).[7][5][6]Police attributed the attempt to the prison’s difficult perimeter monitoring and to the false belief that using animals would not raise suspicion.[7]
The Justice and Peace Ministry published the case on Facebook.[6]The cat was white with black markings and was taken to a security room inside the prison complex, where specialist staff removed the packets.[6]Costa Rican authorities documented at least seven attempts between 2015 and 2024 to bring banned items in with animals, using cats, pigeons and dogs.[6]
Photos and video
Ministry of Justice and Peace video showing prison officers catching the white cat with the drug packets taped to its body at Pococí, and the packets being removed on a table inside the prison. Video: Ministerio de Justicia y Paz Source: EL PAÍS AméricaPhoto captioned as police members removing the drugs taped to the cat, credited by the outlet only as a screen capture.Photo details
OndaCeroondacero.esESNarco-Michi, el insólito caso del gato que ha sido detenido por transportar droga en una cárcel de Costa Rica
Open questions the AI reported
El País says only that the incident happened in early May; other reports give the night of 6 May 2025, the date used here.
El País describes the second substance as crack paste and AFP as crack; one Ecuadorian report called it heroin, so only the 235.65 g of marijuana is recorded as cannabis.
No figure was published for the value of the drugs, and no one was named as arrested or charged over the attempt.
Prison authorities said investigations into who sent the cat and where the drugs were going had only begun; no outcome was reported.
The El País article is partly behind a paywall; the full text used here came from its own page and the other two reports.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in EL PAÍS América: The cat was handed to the National Animal Health Service (Senasa) for safekeeping and care.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in EL PAÍS América: El País recalled a similar case in 2018, when a cat carried marijuana and phones into La Reforma prison.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in EL PAÍS América: The newspaper said two more cats were caught in 2021 being used to smuggle contraband into the Jorge Arturo Montero and Nelson Mandela prisons.
The 67.76 grams of crack are excluded from cannabis figures because crack is not cannabis.
The only image captured from the El Mundo page is an unrelated thumbnail about another story, so no event photo from this outlet can be listed.
OndaCero names the 67.76 grams taped to the cat as cocaine, while the report records the same amount as crack paste; the two accounts describe one second packet and neither figure is counted as cannabis.
El Comercio's photo caption credits it only as a screen capture, so the underlying source of the image is unclear.
Costa Rica's National Coast Guard detained two Ecuadorian men in a 38-foot go-fast boat 52 nautical miles south-east of Punta Burica and seized 2,648 one-kilogram marijuana packages at Golfito. The Public Ministry is deciding their legal situation, and no charges or court step have been reported.
Fuerza Pública officers seized nine packs and 158 doses of suspected marijuana plus cash at the Miraflores dike in Taras, Cartago, after three suspects fled. The mixed seizure also contained crack, cocaine, tusi and ecstasy and was handed to judicial authorities.
Costa Rica's National Coast Guard reported seizing 14,912 kilos of marijuana as part of more than 44 tonnes of drugs intercepted in maritime operations so far in 2026, with 66 people apprehended and 26 vessels seized. The South Pacific accounted for 24 interventions against one in the Caribbean, in operations the service attributed to joint work with the United States, Panama and Colombia.
Costa Rica's Fuerza Pública and Drug Control Police seized 524 marijuana packages, more than 250 kg in total, from a vehicle at a road control in Macho Gaff, San Isidro de El Guarco, Cartago. Two men suspected of transporting the load were handed to the Public Ministry, and the packages bore images of Mexican trafficking figures.
