This is the moment prison guards intercept the latest paw-n in an inmates' plot to smuggle drugs into jail - a kitten with crack taped to its body.

The grey and white puss was spotted climbing over a fence into the jail in Pococi, Limon province, Costa Rica, with the drugs wrapped around its torso.

Footage released by the state's Ministry of Justice and Peace on 8th May, which has since gone viral, shows two guards carefully removing the contraband from the moggie.

While one holds it firmly but gently, the other uses scissors to cut the two packages of drugs loose-wrapped in black plastic and stuck fast with industrial tape.

Inside the packets officers found 235 grammes of marijuana and nearly 70 grammes of crack paste plus sheets of paper for rolling joints.

It is understood that inmates had befriended and fed the stray with scraps so it would return to their cell after dealers outside had loaded it up with narcotics to sell inside jail.

Prison officials and police are investigating and say the cat as been handed over to the National Animal Health Service.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson said: "This is a new method that shows the creativity and cruelty of those trying to break the law."

Local media reports that since 2015 prison officials in Costa Rica have intercepted at least seven attempts to traffic contraband into prisons using cats, dogs and carrier pigeons.

(MJ Leidig/newsX)