Virginia Beach Police Dog....$29M in drugs recovered

[mamadude]

Virginia Beach Virginia canine is "Ace" drug detector





05/05/2003


Reported by: Doug Aronson



He's uncovered an impressive amount of contraband -- 543 ounces of crack, nearly 3,000 ounces of powder cocaine, 46 ounces of heroin and more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana.

The list goes on -- for a total street value of $29 million.

Ten years ago, he was a rookie. Now, he's a veteran cop with no signs of slowing down.

He is Ace the dog, whose work ethic over the last decade is something to behold.

"They say the standard amount of time to work a detector dog is 30 minutes. But there were times when this dog was searching ships for customs. We were searching for over an hour," said Maurice Joseph, Ace's handler.

There's no milk bone reward for Ace, just play time with a towel.



Shelly Wilford, 13News
Ace's reward for his work is playing with a towel.
Ten years ago, Ace was a two-year-old shelter dog. After a lot of training, he's one of the best drug dogs around. Strangely enough, what makes Ace so good is that he's not like other drug dogs. He's not obedient.

"If I had to put obedience in him and have to correct him, heal, heal, it would distort his sense of odor. If I had to correct him off of it, he would get confused and I would not want that at all," Joseph maintains.

Ace has one mission -- to sniff out drugs and he's well equipped for that job.



Shelly Wilford, 13News
Ace has been a drug detector for the Virginia Beach police for 10 years.
A human has about five million olfactory sensory cells. Dogs like Ace have 220 million, which explains how Ace finds everything from ecstacy to methamphetamines.

Joseph says he'll continue to work Ace as long as he can. But he's getting up there in age, now 12.

So Joseph is training Ace's successor, another black lab whose name is Bond.

[JQ Public]

Good BOy

[azsnowman]

Great thread! As some of you know, I have my dog Macy, in NARC training.....as the article stated, it takes a LOT of work, but the rewards are SOOO great! Her *reward* is her *special* stuffed toy/baby *sigh*, it's a little embarrassing to be working with another trainer and have Macy carrying around her *little pink hippo*, she LOVES this stuffed toy!

Dennis

[weatherlover427]

That's one good dog!

[mf_dolphin]

Go ACE Go! Hope he has a great retirement when the time comes