Sacramento County sheriff's office gets new tool to sniff out life-threatening drugs
SACRAMENTO COUNTY -- The Sacramento County sheriff's office received a new tool that helps them sniff out life-threatening drugs.
Swabtek, a company that specializes in novel test kits for narcotics and explosives presumptive field-testing, donated 30 test kits to the department's K9 unit to help them detect fentanyl.
The sheriff's office says that they have seen record levels of fentanyl seizures over the last couple of weeks, and most of the K9 officers are trained to detect narcotics, but if exposed to fentanyl, handlers may only have minutes to figure out what is going on.
"These dogs and handlers do searches day in and day out. Vehicles, houses, and yards, they [dogs] come in contact on a daily basis, and we want to make sure they are safe," said Sheriff Jimm Cooper.
Swabtek says the paper-based tests are safe to use around the dogs and can also detect other drugs like cocaine.