PDEA awards K9s for contribution in anti-drug ops

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Monday gave recognition to 14 Narcotics Detection Dogs (NDDs) for their contribution in detecting illegal drugs worth billions of pesos. (Photo by: PTV/Facebook)

MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Monday gave recognition to 14 Narcotics Detection Dogs (NDDs) for their contribution in detecting illegal drugs worth billions of pesos.

The ceremony was held at the Zemog K9 Training Center in Antipolo City.

The 14 PDEA K9 dogs significantly served as an important tool in the different anti-drug operations conducted by PDEA.

These operations led to the discovery of 1,000 kilos of shabu, 131 kilos of cocaine, 48 kilos of dried marijuana leave, 26,294 tablets of ecstacy found in various airport terminals like Clark Pampanga and Pasay City, Central Mail Exchange Centers (PHILPOST), FedEx and LBC warehouses, DHL cargo, and to the different subdivisions that had been raided by PDEA worth more or less eight billion pesos.

The most prominent awardee is K9 Lala and Tala, both Belgian Malinois that were able to positively identify the presence of 355 kilos of shabu worth PHP2.4 billion concealed in magnetic lifters at Manila International Container Port (MICP) last August 7.

Another known awardee is K9 named “Odel.” Odel identified the stinks of illegal drugs in four magnetic lifters found in GMA, Cavite last August 10, 2018. Odel is also considered one of the prolific dogs of PDEA after identifying billion worth of illegal drugs in NAIA seizures through international delivery services. The other K9 dogs to be recognized were Kiefer, Happy, Gringo, Twinkle, Lovi, Lorent, Bella, Annie, Ella, Kyro, and Olive.

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino showed his full support in providing the PDEA K9 unit a necessary training to ensure an exceptional and remarkable performance in greyhound operations, interdiction, checkpoint, search and seizure during anti- drug operations across the country.

Aquino emphasized his reliable trust in the PDEA K9 unit as he contradicted other law enforcement agencies on the latest issue of emptied magnetic lifters found in GMA, Cavite to have contained illegal drugs.

The K9 unit has a total of 71 working dogs, 46 of which are deployed in the different PDEA regional offices nationwide. Twenty-one NDDs were already offered for adoption that took place last August 17, 2017 and four were subject for breeding under the breeding program of PDEA.

Coinciding with the recognition ceremony is the opening of training of 100 newly-hired K9 handlers, who will be undergoing six months K9 handlers basic course and training of 100 newly procured NDDs.

The PDEA K9 unit continues to improve its facility as it envisioned to be the premier NDD training center in the country and to be the training hub of all NDDs utilized by law enforcement agencies nationwide.

The construction of new buildings inside the 5,000-square meter lot K9 facility in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan amounting to PHP21.3 million is ongoing.