The dog unit of North Rhine-Westphalia’s prison service, together with the state criminal police office, has trained two dogs to reliably detect new psychoactive substances (NPS). NPS mimic the effects of banned drugs and are widespread in prisons because they can easily be dripped onto letters, photos, or children’s drawings and smuggled in.
Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens) described the success during a visit to the training center in Schalksmühle as “great” and unique in Germany. Gradually, more service dogs are to be trained on NPS. The unit has existed since 2010 and has also been searching for data storage devices, especially banned mobile phones, since 2019.
Last year alone, the unit was deployed 322 times, with the dogs detecting narcotics 693 times and mobile phones 111 times. The dogs are also used by the police, for example as explosives, accelerant, or cadaver dogs. Data carrier detection dogs also helped solve cases of mass child abuse in Lügde, Münster, and Bergisch Gladbach.
Source: www.faz.net
