A bizarre old story about a drug-smuggling pigeon just took flight again on social media this week, and American feeds are full of it. Posts are treating the whole thing like fresh news from 2026. It is not. The actual incident happened nearly a decade ago in Kuwait.
In May 2017, Kuwaiti customs officers near the Abdali border area close to Iraq intercepted a homing pigeon. Strapped to the bird’s back was a small fabric pouch. Inside, according to multiple contemporary reports, were 178 pills. Local newspaper Al-Rai broke the story first. An Al-Rai journalist told the hypefresh the pills were a form of ketamine, the anesthetic that also shows up as a party drug. International outlets including the UPI, The Independent, The Telegraph and Newsweek quickly picked it up.
Customs officials said they already suspected smugglers were using pigeons for lightweight, high-value loads across the border. This was the first time they had caught one in the act. Photos from the period show an officer holding the bird with the pouch open and white pills visible.
One early local report put the number at 168 pills rather than 178. The higher figure became the one most international stories repeated. Available coverage never produced independent lab confirmation of the exact substance, so reports stuck with “reportedly ketamine” or “suspected narcotics.”
The same photos later got recycled in completely false claims. Social media posts tried to pass the Kuwait images off as an NYPD bust of drug-carrying pigeons in New York. Reuters and USA TODAY both rated those posts false. Reverse-image checks and NYPD statements confirmed the pictures came from the 2017 Kuwait case and a separate 2015 Costa Rica prison incident.
Some experts have raised practical doubts about the payload. A life-science commentator noted that even a strong pigeon would struggle with 170-plus pills and that the photos appear to show a lighter load. Still, the official account from Kuwaiti sources and the consistent reporting across mainstream outlets remain the primary record.
Similar low-volume animal smuggling has turned up elsewhere pigeons carrying cocaine and cannabis into Costa Rican prisons in 2015, or marijuana and cocaine paste near a Colombian prison in 2011. The method is rare but not unheard of.
The core Kuwait story checks out as a real 2017 event reported by Al-Rai and carried by major news organizations. What does not check out is any claim that this happened in 2026 or that New York police were involved. The bird with the tiny backpack is old news making another round.
