Gulf Clan offered reward for death or capture of German shepherd Sombra after she sniffed out over 2,000 kilos of cocaine

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Colombian authorities have been forced to relocate a police dog responsible for sniffing out more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine after a drug cartel placed a $7,000 bounty on the animal.



Police recently discovered that the powerful Gulf Clan – also known as the Úsugas – had offered the reward for the death or capture of Sombra, a six-year-old German shepherd.

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The threat prompted officials to relocate Sombra – whose name in Spanish means Shadow – from the port of Turbo on the Caribbean coast to the capital city, where she now uses her extraordinary talent at Bogotá’s El Dorado international airport.

“Her sense of smell is far beyond that of other dogs,” said officer José Rojas, Sombra’s 25-year-old handler.

Sombra is transported between her kennel and the airport in a van with tinted windows and is usually accompanied by two armed guards.

“We are responsible for her safety,” said Rojas.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sombra looks for drugs in the cargo hold of El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia, on 26 July. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP

Colombia’s soaring output of coca – the raw material of cocaine – is testing traditionally close relations with the United States. A recent White House report found the amount of land where peasants and drug traffickers harvest the plant used to make cocaine rose 11% in 2017, despite $10bn in US counter-narcotics work.

President-elect Iván Duque is promising a tougher approach to speed up eradication with strategies that could include aerial spraying and the use of drones. But even with advanced technology, experts say on-the-ground detective work like that performed by Sombra is critical.

Some of Sombra’s recent busts include uncovering over five tons of Gulf Clan cocaine destined for Europe and concealed in crates of bananas. Officers also credit her incredible nose with more than 245 drug-related arrests at two of Colombia’s biggest international airports.

“Sombra the German shepherd has become the terror of criminal organizations,” a recent story in Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper proclaimed.

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After learning there was a price on Sombra’s head, Colombia’s national police director ordered her to be transferred to a new post earlier this year, according to local news reports. Investigators uncovered the threat against Sombra through an intercepted phone call.

Colombia’s national police estimates that it has lost at least 1,800 officers over the past two decades and a number of dogs to the war on drugs.