Mumbai: She was responsible for nine major drug hauls worth more than Rs 42 crore at the Mumbai airport. Alert and cautions, she had a nose for trouble, making her one of the most coveted members of the customs department. After five years of untainted service, Dolly, the department’s top dog in drug detection, passed away last week after battling a kidney ailment.
With the spike in drugs cases, two dogs are training hard to take Dolly’s place in the customs’ 4-member dog squad. But the 7-year-old Labrador has left some big shoes to fill. After undergoing rigorous training at a BSF academy at Gwalior, Dolly was inducted into the squad when she just 2 years old. She started with sniffing out 1.3 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 1.3 crore on July 30, 2008. But her career-best drug haul was on August 24, 2012, when she intercepted 18 kilograms of amphetamine worth over Rs 18 crore. In the past 5 years, airport customs has intercepted drugs worth over Rs 100 crore. Out of this, almost half of the cases were intercepted by Dolly.
04/04/13 Bipin Kumar Singh/Mumbai Mirror
