Animal To The Rescue: Bellowing Seal Helps Capture Drug Smugglers

Two foreign nationals are in hot water after being caught with $1 billion worth of illegal drugs with the help of an unlikely hero, a bellowing seal. On Tuesday, French national Antoine Dicenta, 51, and Briton Graham Palmer, 31, were caught by authorities on Burton Island in connection with the incident.

A day before, the two men vanished on a reef off Geraldton, Australia after running their yacht aground. Local police officers frantically searched around the area until they captured the two men on an island near the coastal city.

In a report by 9 News, the two foreigners are said to have traveled across the Indian Ocean to Western Australia with the stash of illegal drugs. Soon after their arrest, local police found the drugs half-covered in seaweed.

When local rescuers searched the beached yacht, there were initially concerned with the occupants of the boat. When they also discovered that the dinghy was missing, they alerted the authorities of a possible sea mishap.

Planes scoured the perimeter where the boat is said to have been aground until a local fisherman saw someone on Burton ducking as rescuers flew past the island. Suspicions were then aroused and the police were deployed to follow up on the situation.

When they arrived on the island, the police were surprised after seeing the men ran for their tender. Luckily, a big seal in deep slumber was between them and their $1 billion stashes of illegal drugs.

Geraldton Volunteer Marine Rescue Service vice commander Damien Healy said that the men tried to wake the seal, but were surprised when it became aggressive.

"They woke it up and it jumped up with its big chest out," quipped the vice commander. What happened on Tuesday isn't the first time that an animal came to the rescue.

In 2002, a famous dolphin in Swanage, Purbeck, UK named Georges the dolphin helped capture three jewelry robbers when it alerted police of their whereabouts.

In 2008, a 59-year-old Parisian woman's murder was solved due to the efforts of her dog. In 2001, a parrot avenged his owner's stabbing by relentlessly gnawing the perpetrators until they were caught.