MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. A male cat that was seized while on a mission to smuggle drugs to a penitentiary in the city of Novomoskovsk, some 150 km to the south of Moscow, has become a defendant in a criminal case, and the law enforcers have placed it to a local cattery for the period of investigation, the press service of the federal agency in charge of penitentiaries said on Thursday.

The tomcat was caught in the small hours of Thursday near a general penitentiary in the company of two malefactors who were going to ship the drugs in a stash embedded in cat’s collar.

Police officials said the tomcat used to live on the territory of the penitentiary but a former inmate took it away with him after finishing the jail term.

The guards of the penitentiary and police operatives thwarted the attempt to use the tomcat as a drug trafficker.

"All the culprits, including the four-legged one were detained and the materials found on them, as well as a dark vegetable substance confiscated from them were sent to a special department that supervises the circulation of drugs," the press service said. "The tomcat has turned into a subject involved in the offense and has ended up in a cattery."