CANINE PARTNER AIDS HIGHWAY DRUG PATROL

GOODWELL (AP) -- A law enforcement duo in this Panhandle city has seized
hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and millions of dollars worth of
drugs on one stretch of highway. Goodwell police officer Matt Boley and his
partner, a Belgian Malinois named Demi, recently were recognized as the
state's K-9 team of the year by the Association of Oklahoma Narcotics
Enforcers.

"We're from a small area, and you don't expect that you can compete with
the larger cities," said Boley, 34. "They have a lot more traffic and a lot
more resources than us."

Boley and his canine partner patrol a tiny stretch of U.S. 54 that passes
through Goodwell. Boley said the highway, which runs from Chicago to
Interstate 40, carries an inordinately large load of drugs and drug money,
so it's a fertile stretch of ground to hunt for drug dealers.

Boley joined the Goodwell Police Department in 1997 after a hitch in the
Marine Corps. A lifelong love of dogs convinced him he wanted to be a K-9
officer, but Goodwell didn't have a dog.

Boley was teamed with Demi after he studied drug interdiction with a few of
the more experienced officers in the area.

Since becoming a team, Boley said he and Demi have taken a bite out of the
drug trade that passes through Goodwell.

Their first major bust -- about a year after they started working the
highway -- netted $400,000 in cash, and things just kept rolling.

In October of 2002, Boley made a stop and found $256,000 in cash. The next
month, he helped on a stop that yielded more than $300,000.

"You're talking about half a million dollars in a month's time," Boley
said. "That's a pretty big dent in somebody's drug profits."

Those profits help the police department fight drug runners.

Police Chief Justin Carnagey said that under the current system, the
district attorney's office in Guymon gets half of all cash seizures, while
the police departments involved in the arrest split the rest.