SOUTH MIAMI

BUSTER BRINGING IN BUCKS FOR CITY

Canine Sniffs For Contraband At Airport

Buster sniffs. Buster bounds and searches. Ears perked, often
twitching, Buster finds his treasure and wags his tail.

Then South Miami cashes in.

Thanks to the Drug Enforcement Agency, six-year South Miami Police
Officer Juan C. Delgado spends his days at Miami International Airport
with his dog Buster searching for passengers who may be transporting
contraband.

Operating under a philosophy of where there are drugs, there probably
is money, the DEA began a pilot program in October with South Miami.

After three years, the 18-month-old chocolate brown Chesapeake Bay
Retriever belongs to the city. In the meantime, the city can collect
20 percent of any illegal money Buster retrieves if the cases are
prosecuted successfully or the suspect does not lay claim to whatever
is there, said Delgado.

Most of the cases involving the dogs, said Buster's trainer, Peter
Nunez, are pretty much open and shut.

So far, Buster -- trained to find drugs only, not money -- has
uncovered $354,000 worth of suspected illegal money. That means South
Miami could be in the black by as much as $70,800.

The DEA crime team works on domestic interdiction, often eyeing
flights coming in from target cities such as New York and Chicago,
Nunez said. Most of the time, suspects are caught because DEA agents
are tipped off, he said.

Earlier this month, Buster found $260,000 worth of gold in the luggage
of a Colombian woman who landed at Miami International Airport from
New York. Authorities received a tip that the woman was carrying some
kind of contraband, Delgado said.

So he took Buster out to the tarmac and grabbed the woman's luggage as
it was coming off the belt. Buster's sniffing led police to a bunch of
trailer hitches located inside one of the bags.

"They were painted silver. When we scratched off some of the paint, we
found gold underneath," Delgado said.

Nunez said Buster was able to find the gold because the dog detected
the scent of drugs, either heroin, cocaine, marijuana or some type of
methamphetamine. Although no drugs were found during the search,
apparently, one of the drugs had been in the bag before the gold was
placed there, he said.

To qualify for the DEA program, a city has to be willing to free one
of its officers to work at the airport. The agency pays for the dog
and the officer's training.

The plan is for Buster to expand his job out to the "field," meaning
throughout the county, including the sea port or private air fields.

There is more money out there, Nunez said, "bigger
seizures."

At the commission's April 13 meeting, Delgado did a demonstration with
Nunez and Buster.

Mayor Julio Robaina was all smiles.

"I'm going to take that dog out and buy him a huge steak dinner,"
Robaina said.