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America’s front line against fentanyl is a Golden Retriever named Goose
By Ted Hesson
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – One of America’s most valuable defenders against fentanyl trafficking at the Mexico border uses his nose to root out illicit drugs, an old-school technique that authorities say is a key to reducing the flow of deadly synthetic opioids.
Goose, an enthusiastic Golden Retriever, weaves through a sea of idling cars on a warm afternoon at San Diego’s massive legal border crossing, one of the most transited in the world with roughly 100,000 people entering the U.S. each day.
The border crossing is open around the clock and dogs contend with exhaust fumes, hot pavement and unpredictable workdays that can go from routine to tense in seconds.
Now Goose and his handler, customs officer Joseph Arcia, trek inside to demonstrate to Reuters how the six-year-old canine can sniff out his training chew toy among the throngs of pedestrians crossing into the U.S. on foot, replicating what he and other dogs do to detect fentanyl and other contraband daily.
Goose sits when he finds the toy planted on a random volunteer crossing the border. Mission accomplished.
The Golden Retriever is one of 536 U.S. Customs and Border Protection canines trained to sniff out drugs, guns, ammunition, money and hidden passengers at America’s land border crossings, airports and seaports. The rise of illicit fentanyl and the epidemic of related overdoses prompted CBP to take the then-unprecedented step in 2017 of training drug-sniffing dogs to detect it, a program that has proved crucial to the agency’s efforts.
Despite millions of dollars in technology that allows CBP to scan vehicles and data analytics that help target possible smugglers, a dog’s sense of smell remains a vital tool for uncovering fentanyl and other narcotics.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that was approved by U.S. authorities for use as an anesthetic in 1968, but a spike in clandestine production and fatal overdoses in the past decade has made it a priority for law enforcement and health providers.
An estimated 75,000 people died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2023, mostly involving fentanyl, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vast majority of CBP fentanyl seizures occur at legal border crossings in Arizona and California, according to CBP statistics. Most convicted fentanyl traffickers in recent years have been U.S. citizens, U.S. Sentencing Commission figures show.
CBP Office of Field Operations canines have been involved with seizing more than 63,000 pounds [28,576 kg] of fentanyl since the program started, according to agency statistics.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat running for another term in Nov. 5 elections, has called on Republicans in Congress to increase funding for border security, including counter-fentanyl efforts at legal border crossings. CBP officials say the funding could help expand the use of canines, which includes a pilot program that has trained six dogs to smell for “precursor” chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Sidney Aki, the CBP field office director for the San Diego area, worked as a canine handler at the start of his career in the 1990s. Speaking to Reuters at the San Ysidro port of entry in late May, he said the dogs operated in conjunction with scanners and data analytics to root out fentanyl and other contraband.
“Of course, if we had more canines, if we had more personnel partnered up with canines, we would continue to do more and more,” he said.
STRONG MOTIVATION
At CBP’s canine academy in Front Royal, Virginia, customs officers from around the country are paired with their new four-legged partners, part of a four- to six-month process to teach the dogs to seek out contraband.
The drug-sniffing dogs are trained to detect six substances: marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy and fentanyl, initially by filling chew toys with “pseudo-narcotics” that smell like the actual drug.
“That toy, that’s all they’re thinking about,” said Donna Sifford, the academy’s director, during an exclusive tour of the facility in mid-June. “When they smell those odors and sit, all they want to do is play with that toy.”
The academy – located on a picturesque 300-acre property in the Shenandoah River Valley – has training areas that simulate what will become the dogs’ real-world work environments, including an airport baggage screening room, mail room conveyor belt and an outdoor parking lot with dozens of dusty cars.
The dogs tend to be German Shepherds, Labradors, Dutch Shepherds and German Shorthaired Pointers, Sifford said. Goose is one of three Golden Retrievers in the program.
Most come from breeders in Europe, mainly Germany and the Czech Republic, while a smaller portion are American. They cost on average $11,000-$12,000 per dog and tend to retire when they reach age 8 or 9, she said.
While other hard drugs can have distinct scents – heroin sometimes smells like vinegar, for instance – fentanyl is usually odorless, at least to humans.
Dogs can learn to detect a new scent in three days on average, Sifford said, but before CBP could start training on fentanyl, the agency needed to develop safety protocols. Trainers always carry four doses of the opioid overdose drug Naloxone – which can also be administered to dogs – although they have not yet needed it, she said.
CBP has heard from authorities in other countries who want to learn about the fentanyl training techniques, including from recent outreach from Argentina and France, Sifford said. They have also had requests from U.S. states and localities.
Sifford acknowledges the work can be challenging for dogs at the border who have to deal with seasonally high temperatures, long work days and the stress of navigating traffic but said the work matches their breeding and temperament.
“When we’re selecting the dogs to go down to the southwest border, we’re looking for the higher-drive dogs that we know can actually work in that environment and maintain that pace,” she said.
‘ BEST (NYSE:) TECHNOLOGY’
Dogs have a sense of smell that is exponentially more powerful than humans with up to 200 times more olfactory receptors, according to a 2022 study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neuroscience.
Dogs can rapidly sweep through vehicle traffic, search suspicious cars and check lines of passengers. They are particularly useful for uncovering fentanyl, which can be moved in small quantities as pills or powder.
“They’re like biosensors,” said Michael Gould, a founding member of the New York City Police Department’s canine unit who now works as an expert witness in legal cases involving police dogs. “It’s really the best technology that’s available.”
The dogs do have limitations. They can typically only be out searching vehicles or people for about 20 minutes in warmer weather before they need a break, officials said. Drug-sniffing canines can also send false alarms, with studies showing a range of effectiveness.
And while CBP’s fentanyl seizures increased in recent years, the agency only appears to intercept a small percentage coming into the U.S.
A 2022 report on synthetic opioids issued by a group of U.S. lawmakers, government officials and outside experts estimated that only five metric tons of pure fentanyl would be enough to supply all U.S. opioid users for a year – a fraction of comparable heroin consumption by weight.
“That’s a whole year’s worth of fentanyl use in the United States that you can provide with three pickup truck loads,” said David Luckey, a senior researcher with the non-partisan, public policy-focused RAND Corporation, who worked on the report.
The street price of fentanyl has dipped to $1 per pill or lower in certain parts of the U.S., suggesting ample supply.
Pete Flores, CBP’s acting deputy commissioner, told Reuters his agency does not estimate how much fentanyl or other drugs might cross into the U.S. undetected but said the efforts aim to disrupt transit routes and business models used by criminal organizations.
“Every single shipment of narcotics, and particularly fentanyl, that we stop, we’re saving lives,” Flores said.
Stock Markets
Insight Partners closes in on new $10 billion fund, FT reports
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Insight Partners is on the brink of closing a new $10 billion-plus fund, roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of its plans.
Insight will not formally close its 13th fund until early next year, the report said, adding that the final figure may be closer to $12 billion.
Insight Partners declined to comment on the report.
The report said Insight is using a private equity-style structure to sell more than $1 billion worth of stakes in start-ups and to free up cash to return to investors.
One of the start-ups is Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, which had called off a $23 billion deal with Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in July, the report said.
New York-based Insight raised $20 billion for its 12th flagship fund in 2022, aiming to ramp up investments in software and technology companies.
Stock Markets
Houthi missile reaches central Israel for first time, no injuries reported
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
“No injuries were reported,” the military said.
Stock Markets
Eight die in Channel crossing attempt, French authorities say
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.
Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area.
“A new drama took place around one in the morning and we deplore the death of eight people,” he told a news conference, adding that the other 51 onboard were now in the care of rescue and medical crews.
The dead were men from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan, he added.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes crossing on small boats dangerous.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died trying to cross the Channel from France since the start of the year, Billant said.
On September 14 alone there were eight attempts to cross the Channel from France and some 200 migrants were rescued, he said.
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