MEXICO CITY: Central American authorities are spending more time than usual eyeballing the backsides of bovine, that drug cartels are using cattle to hoof drugs north to Mexico.
A recent article published—with rather curious precision— that each narco cow can carry between 88-132 pounds of carefully packaged cocaine in its intestines. The cattle are reportedly purchased in Nicaragua, back-loaded with drug packets somewhere along the early stages of the route, then lumber northward — presumably with a slight hemorrhoidal limp—followed by their stinky-handed minders.
It’s a dirty job, but it’s a résumé-builder for those on a certain career path.
Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says it doesn’t know about the fabled narco cows of Central America, but agents say the allegation doesn’t surprise them either.
Central American authorities are more skeptical about the narco-cow claim. Honduran police spokesman Leonel Sauceda told me there’s never been a case in his country’s history of law enforcement catching drug traffickers smuggling cocaine inside cattle. The closest they’ve come, he said, was detecting cocaine hidden inside the false compartment of a cattle truck.
Nicaraguan cattle farmers are also dubious. Santiago Castillo, president of the Nicaraguan Federation of Cattle Farmers, which exports some 8,000 head of cattle to Honduras each year, says it’s highly unlikely that drugs are being inserted into bovine in his country.
