Brazil sniffer dog receives death threat from Rio drug gangs
A French policeman carries out investigations with a police dog at the Bois de Vincennes in Paris on June 18, 2012 after a second human torso was discovered in the woods.
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Drugs gangs have threatened Boss, a sniffer dog working with Rio de Janeiro’s narcotics team.
The Labrador is wanted by a gang in Brazil’s violent Manguinhos slum after he sniffed out between 660 and 800 pounds of marijuana hidden in a false wall, according to The Telegraph. Police in the favela in northern Rio overheard a radio message from a trafficking kingpin who ordered the rest of his gang to “target brownie,” a reference to Boss’s color.
“The traffickers said they were going to shoot the brown [dog],” Maj. Victor Vale of Rio’s drug squad told Brazil’s Globo TV. “They wanted to kill him.”
Boss is one of the squad’s most effective sniffer dogs, reported BBC News.
Valle said the dog will continue to work in the slum, but will now be protected by nine police officers, The Telegraph noted. He also said this is the first time one of the squad’s sniffer dogs has received a death threat.
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"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 said.
According to BBC, hundreds of Brazilian police officers in armored cars and helicopters moved to take control of two Rio slums notorious for their drugs trade earlier this month.