SNIFFER DOGS SOOLED ONTO DRUGS IN JAILS

While the State Government yesterday was boasting about the biggest
drug bust at a NSW prison, police were parading the latest recruits to
their dog unit - four cannabis-sniffing labradors.

The Police Minister, Mr Whelan, said the dogs were being used to beat
the transportation of cannabis, particularly in trucks, but the program
might be expanded to include checks on trains.

In a six-month trial, the dogs had searched 285 vehicles and found
drugs 184 times. .

The Corrective Services Department's dog detection unit led to a
record drug bust at Silverwater Jail at the weekend, when a male
visitor's Holden Commodore was found to contain "all the ingredients of
a mobile amphetamine laboratory", the Corrective Services Minister, Mr
Debus, told Parliament yesterday.

The seizure included 2,520 pseudoephedrine tablets, 1,260 Sudafed
tablets, a set of digital scales, glass containers, a test-tube
catalogue and a syringe. Police are investigating .

"I am advised that quantity of tablets can be distilled into
amphetamines with a street value of more than $200,000. In jail
currency, this could be worth up to three times as much."

At Silverwater, Junee, Lithgow and Grafton jails at the weekend,
sniffer dogs helped in the arrest and charging of 12 people with drugs
possession, trafficking drugs into a prison, knives and vehicle
offences. In the first seven months of the year, 109 visitors were
charged with drug offences.

Mr Debus said smuggling vehicles included pram handles, nappies, bras,
hair bands, dentures, an eye patch, the tongues of sneakers, and false
pockets. "They have even gone so far as to soak cigarette filters in
heroin," he said.

The head of the police dog unit, Inspector Peter Crumblin, said his
latest recruits would eventually be trained to detect drugs other than
cannabis.

He said the dogs were not used in random checks but targeted vehicles
identified by police intelligence. "There must be a reason that draws
our involvement," he said.