Brazilian police have seized a parrot that was heard warning suspected drug dealers of their approach.

The bird squawked “Mummy! Police!” when officers neared a home in Teresina, the capital of the northeastern state of Piaui. “He must have been trained,” a spokesman for the force said. “He shouted the moment he saw us.”

Officers soon learnt that the parrot’s owner, identified as a woman named India, had two convictions for drug trafficking. A search of her home uncovered crack cocaine, which police said that her husband, Edvan, 30, was selling. He was arrested.

Their 16-year-old daughter, who was found with marijuana in her underwear, was taken into custody but released with a warning.

Environmental police were later sent to capture the parrot, which is