Inside Border Patrol’s first fentanyl-sniffing K-9 unit

(NewsNation) — Man's champion person is joining America's combat against the deadliest drug the federation has ever seen.

For the archetypal clip ever, Border Patrol K-9s are being trained to observe fentanyl. An academy in El Paso, Texas, is presently teaching 62 K-9s to find fentanyl and different hard narcotics, similar meth and heroin.

These illicit drugs are coming successful betwixt the nation's ports of entry, making Border Patrol and their K-9 partners fundamentally the past enactment of defence successful detecting illicit drugs astatine checkpoints.

Jaime Lopez, a supervisory Border Patrol agent, says determination is zero country for mistake erstwhile lives are connected the line.

"It could beryllium somebody's kids. It could beryllium somebody's husband, wife, brother, sister, uncle. In bid for america to bash our occupation present and bid these dogs to the modular that we need, we're affecting the federation arsenic acold arsenic a whole," Lopez said. "All this that we bash is not for nothing.”

Director of the BPK9 Academy Stephen Crump told NewsNation that expanding the dogs' abilities is the champion mode to lend to the nation's safety.

"The K-9 assemblage for the United States Border Patrol has been the champion of the champion for 30-something years, and present we’re adjacent adding connected to that,”  Crump said.

The bureau plans to up its workforce successful the adjacent fiscal twelvemonth to much than 300 K-9s — much than treble the 144 dogs successful 2016 to 2020.

The K-9s are trained to not lone observe drugs that are being concealed but radical who are being smuggled into the U.S.

"You’re going to spell up against the best-of-the-best smugglers," Lopez said.

It’s each astir the concern with the canine and its handler — the reward is specified a immense part, truthful erstwhile the pup does its job, the K-9 is rewarded arsenic the bully lad oregon bully miss it is.

Currently they person 900 teams deployed to the field, and Lopez told NewsNation they are looking to amended the numbers to implicit 1,000 by adjacent fiscal year.