Colombian cartel places $7K bounty on drug dog
BOGOTA, Colombia — This is the story of a drug dog with a bounty on its head. Sombra, a 6-year-old German shepherd, has helped Colombia’s police detect more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine hidden in suitcases, boats and large shipments of fruit.
But as the dog sniffs her way toward record cocaine interdictions, she has also become the latest target of Colombia’s most powerful drug gang.
Colombian police recently revealed that the Gulf Clan, a cartel that boasts its own guerrilla army, has offered a $7,000 reward to whoever kills or captures the savvy hound.
The threat prompted officials to relocate Sombra — whose name in Spanish means Shadow — from a busy port on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to the capital city, where she uses her extraordinary talent to sniff through suspicious transferred to a new post earlier this year, according to local news reports.
Investigators uncovered the threat against Sombra through an intercepted phone call.
“Sombra the German shepherd has become the terror of criminal organizations,” a recent story in Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper proclaimed.
On a typical day, Sombra is up by 6 a.m. and shuttled from a kennel to work at El Dorado airport inspecting packages and cargo. With her neon reflective vest, pointy ears and gaping mouth, she looks more like a family pet than a veteran drug-sniffing police dog.
Since she was transferred in January, the canine sleuth has sniffed thousands of pounds of cocaine out of the dark, helping her handlers find the drug hidden in boxes full of sneakers and wooden necklaces. Afew months ago, the hound also detected 77 kilos of cocaine placed deep inside an industrial machine.
Colombia’s national police estimates they’ve lost at least 1,800 officers over the past two decades and a number of dogs to the war on drugs. Some officers were killed by hitmen acting on the orders of drug traffickers, while others died in attacks like bombings on police stations. Several dogs have been killed while helping officers eradicate coca crops.
As she struts around Bogota’s airport with her handler, fans stop her for a selfie. But Rojas said the star-like attention hasn’t gotten to Sombra’s head.
“Sombra in comparison to other dogs is much easier to work with,” he said. “She understands orders.”