Feral pigs are an invasive species in Italy and upwards of two million of them do nothing but wreak havoc on local ecosystems, including doing damage to farms. According to VICE, the hogs have also caused around 10,0000 car accidents and the deaths of 13 people this year!

We can only imagine what they were like after tearing into $22k worth of buried cocaine in a Tuscan forest.

Of course, this particular act of destruction was a good thing. It allowed the local police to break up an Italian-Albanian drug gang after wiretaps recorded them complaining about the pigs digging up and scattering their stash.

Four suspects were arrested after the incident, with two people in jail and two under house arrest, according to the Italian newspaper Il Tirreno.

The police first learned of the gang after a 21-year-old Albanian man was killed in May of 2018. That’s when they discovered that a group was trafficking drugs from Perugia to Siena and Arezzo. Much of the cocaine was being sold in a nightclub in Arezzo.

The drugs in question had been buried in a forest area in Italy’s Valdichiana valley. It’s unknown how many pigs got into the cocaine, but some sources estimate it must have been between 30 and 50. And while a wild boar on cocaine must be quite a sight, no one knows exactly what happened to the animals after they looted the location.

The powder had been stored in jars that were tucked into waterproof packages. It appears that the boars would have had to dig them up and then stomp open the bottles to do this kind of damage.

All we know at the moment is that gang members visited their stash only to find the powder scattered all over the forest floor. There has been no word on how the mess was cleaned up or how many creatures might have been affected by the loose cocaine.

The suspects in custody are thought to have sold roughly 4.4 pounds of the drugs per month, netting between $90 and $120 per gram. But their lucrative dealings have come to an end.

While the idea of wild boars high on cocaine might sound vaguely amusing, the presence of these animals is anything but funny. In this case, the animals did the police a favor, but it’s clear that something needs to be done to control their destructive populations in the near future.

Farmers and other citizens have protested the lack of action by the Italian government to cull the invasive creatures who are costing both money and lives.

In October, hundreds of farmers took to the streets of Rome to pressure the government to help protect their crops and livestock.

The Telegraph reported that Italians have suggested that hunters be allowed to hunt outside the traditional season using bows to help cull the population.

Wild boars are not just a problem in Italy, however. The United States has some serious issues with the destructive animals as well, especially in Texas. They erode soil and muddy water sources, disrupt vegetation, and attack local wildlife because they will eat nearly anything. In addition, they are also common carriers of parasites and other infections.

Unless we’re going to start recruiting them for drug task forces, the wild and invasive species needs to be dealt with in many parts of the world. Just watch out for the ones high on cocaine.

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Source: Vice, Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine