Drug traffickers’ benefit ‘from the dogs’ abilities to protect themselves from justice; they also train cats, horses and even mice to commit crimes

Criminals, especially drug dealers, train dogs to be drug guards, protectors or traffickers. They try to take advantage of the excellent abilities of these animals to commit illicit activities.

One of the most recent examples was the two trained dogs found with the largest drug trafficker in Colombia today and head of the Clan del Golfo, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, on October 25.

The dogs had been trained to warn the drug trafficker of any person or strange movement around him and, especially, of policemen. In fact, the Colombian gendarmes affirm that the dogs alerted Otoniel to the presence of the public force in previous operations, which allowed his escape.

In 2015, the same Otoniel had trained another dog of race beagle, who have a sharper sense of smell than their peers and who are trained to track missing persons. The canid alerted the drug dealer to the police presence, and he escaped.

Chapolo, as the dog was called, was a specific request from the drug trafficker. It was a friendly animal and almost always stuck its nose to the ground to sniff, indicates the medium Week from Colombia. Notifying Otoniel of the police was the last task that the hound obeyed the dangerous drug trafficker, since the public force adopted him and he served in the rescue group.

Meanwhile, in Argentina, in 2018, Police detained two men who were transporting themselves in a car with suspicious attitude. When asked to get out of the vehicle, along with them came a “huge” purebred dog. pitbull, with which they tried to dissuade the agents, recounts daily Clarion. The policemen managed to neutralize the men and the dog. When they searched the car, they found cocaine.

For a dog to be able to detect strangers to its owners, at a considerable distance and especially policemen, it should have received excellent training based on rewards, indicates Miguel Montalván, known as Canine Leader in social networks.

He adds that specialized people should have trained Otoniel’s dogs, for example, teaching them to detect the “peculiar” smell that police uniforms, bulletproof vests or the patrols themselves have, and thus give the alert when they approached.. This type of training can be done since they are puppies.

“Dogs can detect odors up to two kilometers. Any breed of dog can be trained to do good activities and, in this case, bad ones too. They (drug traffickers) have the money to hire professional trainers, ”he says.

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On the other hand, for canids to fulfill a role of “custodians” of both criminals and drugs, they are taught to be aggressive with the majority of people, except with their owners, says Ángela González, a professional canine trainer.

Aggression develops by mentally frustrating the dog by confining it for long periods of time only feeding it. They are also made to practice attacking tactics in which a person places a padded suit on his arm, for example, for the dog to bite at the command of its owner.

“This type of exercise, with specialized suits, is also done by the Police to arrest criminals. Any breed of dog can be trained to guard, it must only be one year old. The training is done for a minimum of three months ”, affirms Montalván.

For the specialist, criminals, by physically punishing or locking them up to make them aggressive, are committing animal cruelty. In some countries, such as Ecuador, sanctions are established for this crime.

According to article 249 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code, a person who injures a pet or companion animal will be punished with imprisonment for two to six months. If the conduct is carried out as a result of cruelty or animal torture, it will be punished with jail from six months to one year.

Both Montalván and González agree that dogs are victims of criminals, who try to take advantage of their abilities to commit crimes.

Cats, mice and horses are also used for illicit activities

Using animals for crime is not new in the history of mankind. However, drug traffickers have expanded the list of animals used and perfected their techniques. For example, in 2018 the Russian authorities detected a cat wearing a collar with a cache to transport narcotics into a prison. There they found almost 6 grams of hashish and 1.56 grams of amphetamine.

Meanwhile, a parrot was trained in Brazil to warn drug traffickers about the police presence. “Mom, the police,” was the phrase the bird said to give the alert.

Pigeons have also been used to deliver drugs. One of the first cases was reported in Argentina in 2013. A gang of drug traffickers used these birds to distribute small amounts of marijuana in plastic tubes that they tied to their legs.

In Brazil, in 2015, inmates of the Barra da Grota prison managed to tame a mouse to serve as the delivery man for their drug business. The rodent scurried between the pavilions carrying envelopes of narcotics.

The use of horses and cows to smuggle drugs has also been reported, especially in Central America. The former do the loading work, but with the cattle they introduce the drug into the stomach of the cows. (I)