DEATH TO THAT NOSY DOG

‘Boss,’ the Rio De Janeiro police sniffer dog, to be protected by nine heavily armed officers after drug gang issues death warrant

A lot of police sniffer dogs throughout the world have been targeted by drug gangs.

‘GET BROWNIE’: RIO DRUG GANG ISSUES DEATH WARRANT ON POLICE SNIFFER DOG AFTER IT FINDS 300KG OF THEIR CANNABIS
By Matt Roper

Mail Online
October 30, 2012

A drug gang in Rio de Janeiro has issued a death order against a brown labrador named Boss, after the sniffer dog uncovered 300kg of cannabis.

Five-year-old Boss is the most feared of the 68 sniffer dogs who help police find drugs in Rio’s vast slums, police said.

He has been known to home in on a single hidden cannabis joint buried in the ground several meters away.

The gang in the violent Manguinhos slum wants the labrador’s head after he sniffed out the huge quantity of cannabis hidden inside a false wall.

Police patrolling the favela in the north of the city intercepted a radio message from the trafficking kingpin with an order to ‘target brownie’ - a reference to the dog's color.

The gangsters recently tried to throw him off the scent by hiding a batch of drugs next to an open sewage drain, but the labrador still managed to lead officers to them despite the pungent smell.

Major Vitor Valle, from Rio's military police dog squad, said Boss will continue to work in the slum but will now be protected by nine policemen.

He said it was the first time one of their dogs has received a death threat from the powerful drugs factions.

He said: ‘Since 1955, when the dog squad was first formed, have we had a case like this. We haven't even had a dog injured during police operations.’

He added that Boss has always been an ‘excellent’ sniffer dog. ‘He's become a target because of the amount of the traffickers' drugs he's helped seize,’ he said.

‘We see this as a normal situation. Every one of us is at risk who are working against drugs trafficking.

‘A dog can also be threatened, especially as our dogs have helped find more than 1.5 tons of drugs in the last year. It won't stop us, or him, doing our work.’