Spoorthy, Rita, Jhansi, Hunter, Honey and their other friends will have a new companion in another three months.
For the past few years, these hard-working sniffer dogs have been assisting the City Security Wing (CSW) to sanitise public places for explosives. But their new friend, Arjun, will do a different thing altogether. Arjun will sniff out areas for drugs and other psychotropic substances from January.
One-year-old Arjun is now being trained at the Intelligence Training Centre in Moinabad, Ranga Reddy district, says CSW Inspector Ch. Nagasai.
The brownish Labrador has been undergoing training on how to trace narcotic substances during police raids as peddlers secretly hide drugs at different locations.
Regular duties
“We are using drug samples to train Arjun,” says a senior official, adding that induction of Arjun into the existing team of 32 sniffer dogs will strengthen the CSW.
Apart from searching for explosives, the 32 dogs attend to regular duties ahead of VVIP visits everyday.
Concerned over the increasing drug-related cases, police officials have decided to rope in a trained dog for tracing narcotic substances sold surreptitiously by different gangs in the capital.
Police records say that 11 cases related to use of cocaine have been booked last year and that 52 people were involved in the supply of illegal drugs.
Foreign ‘hand’
Of them, the police arrested 41 people, including 20 foreign nationals and a few Telugu film actors, police officials confirm.
Investigations revealed that some anti-social elements, including foreign nationals, were selling narcotics to youth from influential families and celebrities.
“We noticed that some youths from African countries were visiting the city on a student or tourist visa and were selling cocaine at pubs, restaurants, hookah centres and star hotels,” another official explains.
