— Policía Antinarcóticos (@PoliciaAntiNar) July 20, 2018
The 6-year-old German Shepherd has caught more than nine US tons of the Gulf Clan's cocaine in transit during her career, uncovering it in everything from suitcases to boats to fruit containers. That's more than $204 million worth of drugs, if valued at street level in the US, and more than enough for Colombia's cartels to consider the hound a massive thorn in their behind.
She's also busted some 245 bad guys.
Sombra is on track to break the record for the dog with the most drug busts in Colombia. She reportedly has an incredible nose for it, which is probably why she has attracted the ire of Colombia's meanest cartel. The Gulf Clan reportedly claims to even have a guerilla army.
"Her sense of smell is far beyond that of other dogs," her handler, officer Jose Rojas, said.
— General Jorge Nieto (@GeneralNietoR) July 20, 2018
Due to the threat, Colombian officials have relocated Sombra — Spanish for ‘shadow' — to the capital of Bogota's El Dorado International Airport. She had been sniffing out the snow at at a bustling port on the Caribbean coast.
Her recent finds include 5 tons from the Gulf Clan that was headed to Europe in a crate of bananas; more in boxes full of shoes and wooden necklaces; and 77 kilos (nearly $2 million USD) buried deep within an industrial machine
— Policía Antinarcóticos (@PoliciaAntiNar) July 27, 2018
Sombra was reportedly transferred in January, police recently announced. She's now accompanied by an additional two officers but still hard at work.
Colombia's national police say they've lost at least 1,800 police officers and a number of dogs in the past 20 years.
— Policía Antinarcóticos (@PoliciaAntiNar) July 24, 2018
Apparently, cocaine is coming out of Colombia at heightened levels — a 19 percent increase from 2016 to 2017, according to the US. A report from the White House found that the amount of land used to harvest the coca plant, which is made into cocaine, rose 11 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, the US spent $10 billion on the war on drugs that year.
"President Trump's message to Colombia is clear: the record growth in cocaine production must be reversed," said Jim Carroll, Deputy Director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Colombia and the US have long enjoyed close relations. The nation became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) first Latin American global partner in May.
