Cannabis cat on drugs run collared at Moldova jail Published duration 18 October 2013

media caption Footage of the cat having its cannabis-laden collar removed was filmed by the Moldovan Justice Ministry

Guards at a prison in the Moldovan village of Pruncul have pounced on a cat being used to traffick bags of cannabis, tied around its neck.

Suspicions were raised after the small grey and white creature was spotted regularly nipping in and out of the jail through a hole in a fence.

Its oversize decorative collar turned out to contain drugs and investigations are under way to sniff out its trainer.

Video of the cat being searched was posted by the justice ministry.

A cat was recently used to smuggle mobile phones into a Russian jail.

Guards caught it climbing a fence at the jail in Syktyvkar in June, the Moscow Times reported at the time , adding a photo of the creature being held by the scruff of its neck, the phones and chargers taped to its body.

It was just one of several attempts discovered in recent years, with cats at other jails being used to deliver heroin, the paper noted.