Law Enforcement K9 units around Gallatin Valley have been trained on alerting to the scent of Fentanyl.
Prior to his recent training, K9 Cuddles –of the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office—was trained to alert to cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. Deputy Doug Lieurance says that those three drugs were commonly laced with fentanyl; however, K9s were unable to alert if there was only fentanyl.
“Before, we had to trust that if there’s fentanyl hopefully it’s in relation to meth, coke, and heroin,” Deputy Lieurance said.
When it comes to the safety of the K9s, Deputy Lieurance says that when the team is out, performing a ‘sniff’, he is already scanning the area for any dangerous item or situation—such as loose powder or exposed needles—and he carries Narcan for himself as well as for their K9 partners.
Deputy Lieurance explains how the newly learned skill was proven effective during a stop in Belgrade.
“A Belgrade officer stopped a vehicle, called for us to come assist, and we sniffed the vehicle,” Deputy Lieurance said.
Following the sniff, positive alert, and a search warrant, several blue pills were discovered in the vehicle and tested positive for Fentanyl.
“That was the only thing that we located, there were no other drugs in the vehicle at that time that we found,” Deputy Lieurance said.
K9 Cuddles searching and alerting to Fentanyl:
