Military working dog and his handler help seize more than 2,700 pounds of marijuana in Texas
Staff Sgt. Andrew Fuka and his five-year old Belgian Malinois, Nero, were involved in 26 seizures during their 98-day TDY in support of the United States Customs and Border Patrol. In all, Fuka and Nero aided in confiscating drugs totaling approximately $5.2 million in street value. Of the 26 seizures Fuka and Nero were involved, the biggest individual bust totaled 332 pounds of marijuana. Their smallest bust was 48 pounds.
"These people weren't trafficking small, recreational amounts of marijuana," Fuka said. "These people were working for the cartel."
Although they were not responsible for making any arrests, Fuka and Nero were tasked to detect any illegal substances hidden in vehicles crossing the U.S. border.
"Air Force dogs are considered passive response, which means they will just sit down when they detect something," Fuka explained. "If Nero detected something, I would notify the instructor. From that point, they would bring a customs dog over and check the vehicle again. The customs dogs are aggressive response, which means they will bite and claw at the area they believe the drugs are at. If they matched up, the person would be apprehended and taken to a holding cell immediately.
"From there, the vehicle would be driven up to a platform. We would then notify the Air Force National Guard and Army National Guard assigned there who were responsible for dismantling the vehicles. Their primary job is to tear the vehicle apart where we thought the drugs were located and find them."
Fuka said drug traffickers would hide the drugs inside tires, gas tanks, dashboards, bumpers and other various parts of the vehicle.
Although this was the first mission for both, Fuka said Nero did an outstanding job.
"The average team gets about 1,000 pounds. Nero exceeded that by almost 200 percent," said Fuka.
He added, "This is definitely something I want to do again. I learned a lot about my dog and a lot about the people involved in drug trafficking." (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).
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