Man’s best friend also did his civic duty in the war on narcotics as a police K-9 sniffed out some 440 pounds of cocaine stowed inside cardboard boxes in the back of an SUV in a Los Angeles suburb.
Police in Alhambra, located about ten miles east of downtown L.A., announced Saturday that the drug bust unfolded after officers conducted a traffic stop along Valley Boulevard near the 710 Freeway.
Although authorities did not disclose the reason for the initial stop, officers noticed the car appeared to have an unusual amount of cargo, and they became suspicious.
“The driver was transporting more cardboard boxes than Amazon on Prime Day,” the department said on its Facebook page.
When cops on patrol inquired, the driver offered an explanation for the boxes, according to police.
“At first, he said he was heading home to Huntington Park from his cousin’s house and that the boxes were not his,” police said in their post.
Then the explanation changed.
“Later came version 2.0 of his lore,” police said, “and he said he was taking diesel parts to a shop that his friend owned.”
Soon a K-9 named Otis and his handler were on the scene.
The German shepherd went on drug alert, prompting them to search the SUV and potentially providing enough probable cause to not have to get a search warrant from a judge.
“Thanks to Otis’ top-tier nose, he alerted to the vehicle, and officers discovered the SUV was packed with approximately 200 kilos of cocaine,” police said.
Police identified the driver as Julio Rangel of Huntington Park. He was arrested and booked into the Alhambra Police Department jail, according to police. Authorities did not release the exact day of the arrest.
Following the drug bust, Otis was hailed as the hero of the operation.
“A round of a-paws for our good boy,” police wrote in their post, unable to resist the pun.
Like any good dog story, news of the bust went viral.
One X account posted photos of the dog and his cocaine haul: “Meet Otis. He’s a police K9 in Alhambra, California, and he just had a banger of a day.”
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
