Drug dog gets suite satisfaction
Habo leads Placentia police to the third pot farm discovered at an industrial complex.
When it comes to sniffing out trouble, Scooby-Doo has nothing on Habo the German shepherd.
For the third time in less than two years, the police dog has helped bust a marijuana growing operation at the same Placentia industrial complex.
The Placentia Police Department’s K-9 unit dog alerted officers to the marijuana in the 700 block of Monroe Way.
Officers served a search warrant Monday morning and seized 600 live plants and 100 pounds of packaged marijuana valued at $500,000.
Placentia Police Lt. Eric Point said Habo previously sniffed out marijuana in a suite at the complex in July and in April 2014.
Two men were taken into custody during the April raid.
“They obviously set up the operation again ... in the same unit. Obviously those two are related,” Point said of the April and July cases.
The newest crop was in the same complex but in a different suite, Point said. It’s unknown if it is related to the previous two, he added.
At the latest grow, suspects tried to conceal the odor of marijuana by burning fragrance crystals in slow-cookers by the entrance, Point said.
“Kind of like a potpourri,” he said.
The pot growers might have gotten away with the farm had it not been for the police and their dog.
Over the years, drug dealers have tried to fool police dogs by using such things as coffee grounds and repellent used to keep pets away from areas and off furniture.
“A properly trained drug detection dog smells the odors of narcotics right through those things,” Point said. “None of it works.”
No arrests have been made after the latest find, but the investigation is ongoing.