A Colombian Cartel Has Put a $70,000 Hit on a Sniffer Dog
A Colombian drug cartel has put a US$70,000 (200m-peso) contract on the head of a six-year-old female police sniffer dog, named Sombra—meaning “shadow” in Spanish.
The threats came after Sombra featured in a video in Colombia’s most popular newspaper, El Tiempo, after she discovered around 10 tonnes of coke produced by Colombia’s most powerful cartel, the Urabeños.
According to The Telegraph, Sombra discovered the coke while wearing a body cam, which has a street value in excess of $500 million. Understandably, they’re not happy about it.
To add insult to injury, authorities have been taunting the boss of the Urabeños cartel, Dairo Antonio Úsaga, over Twitter, detailing how their prize-pooch Somrbra has been crippling their operations along the Atlantic coast for the past three years.
Responding to the hit, Colombian anti-narcotics officers have provided Somrbra with armed guards while she works at the Bogota international airport, an area that’s allegedly beyond the cartel’s influence.
The BBC reports that as well as sharing the pictures of the superstar dog’s discoveries, authorities have repeatedly appeared on TV with Sombra.
In 2012, the same cartel reportedly offered $500 to anyone who executed a police officer, and even more if the cop worked with the anti-narc task force.
This article originally appeared on VICE AU.