'Rambo' Foils Drug Smugglers At O'Hare
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Rambo didn't need any guns to stop a shipment of opium from being smuggled through O'Hare International Airport earlier this month, not to mention hundreds of other drug shipments smugglers tried to get through the airport.
Of course, this Rambo isn't an action movie star, he's a drug-sniffing dog for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Nancy Harty reports, the 65-pound Belgian Malinois named Rambo is the agency's top dog in the Chicago customs office at the International Mail Facility near O'Hare.
CBP Assistant director Robyn Dessaure said "He's found marijuana, cocaine, hashish, heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine. You name it, he finds it."
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This month, he and his CBP officer partner made three seizures of opium while working at the International Mail Facility near O'Hare.
Rambo found opium hidden in a shipment of women's sandals, soaked into the cloth of a shipment of women's shawls, and soaked into the cloth of another shipment of tablecloths.
In the shipment of tablecloths, thanks to Rambo's help, agents found a thin black tarlike substance saturated into each of 22 tablecloths. The substance tested positive for opium.
And on March 11, Rambo and his officer partner identified a parcel containing ten long colorful shawls. Officers found the shawl cloth contained a total of 3.1 kilograms of opium.
Rambo also alerted agents to a shipment of 18 pairs of women's sandals, which were concealing opium pellets in the heels.
All parcels originated in Laos and were destined for St. Paul, Minn., according to CBP.
"Wherever smugglers can hide it, Rambo can find it. CBP canine enforcement teams are an extremely effective tool in helping our officers seize harmful illegal drugs in international mail shipments," said David Murphy, CBP Director of Field Operations in Chicago. "Smugglers have months and years to devise and conceive ways to try to defeat our enforcement efforts; however, our trained officers and in this case, our four-legged partners have the nose to ferret out these concealment methods."
Dessaure said Rambo has helped make more than 700 drug seizures in seven years on the job.
"We have over 1,300 canine teams keeping our neighborhoods and our nation safe at the border," Dessaure said.
At 8 years old, Rambo is set to retire later this year. Dessaure said she expects a CBP agent will adopt him.
