K9 Unit

According to the DEA, “The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world. As such, it attracts the most ruthless, sophisticated, and aggressive drug traffickers. Public Safety agencies face an enormous challenge in protecting the country's borders. Each year, according to the U.S. Customs Service, 60 million people enter the United States on more than 675,000 commercial and private flights. Another 6 million come by sea and 370 million by land. In addition, 116 million vehicles cross the land borders with Canada and Mexico. More than 90,000 merchant and passenger ships dock at U.S. ports. These ships carry more than 9 million shipping containers and 400 million tons of cargo. Another 157,000 smaller vessels visit our many coastal towns. Amid this voluminous trade, drug traffickers conceal cocaine, heroin, marijuana, MDMA, and methamphetamine shipments for distribution in U.S. neighborhoods.”

• In 2008, 25.8 million Americans age 12 and older had abused marijuana at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.
• In 2008, 850,000 Americans age 12 and older had abused methamphetamine at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.
• In 2008, 5.3 million Americans age 12 and older had abused cocaine in any form and 1.1 million had abused crack at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.
• In 2008, 453,000 Americans age 12 and older had abused heroin at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. 

The Department of Public Safety/ Highway Patrol Division’s Interdiction and Criminal Enforcement (ICE)/K-9 unit is determined to prevent and intercept the drug traffickers while on Nevada’s highways. 

Nearly all costs associated with the Department of Public Safety/Highway Patrol Division K-9 program is funded from the forfeiture account.  Following the laws of seizure and federal asset forfeiture a large portion of the seized cash and assets, may later be returned to the agency for use in drug interdiction programs. These funds can be used by the Department to buy or replace equipment, provide training and improve drug enforcement opera­tions. Because of these asset seizures the ICE/K-9 drug interdiction programs can afford to have and maintain the latest equipment to complement their operations and they can do this without impacting the state budget. 

The costs of these highly trained K-9’s is offset by an organization known as Nevada State Friends of K-9. This non-profit organization has donated all of the Departments current K-9’s and has been instrumental in the success of the program. This organization is comprised of several business leaders in Nevada. We would like to thank them for their unified support in helping to make our program a success.

Nevada State Friends of K-9 is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting Nevada law enforcement in funding a police K-9 program for use in curbing the flow of drugs into and through the state of Nevada. This public-private partnership seeks funds to purchase and deploy specially trained police dogs across the state for the use by the Nevada Department of Public Safety/Highway Patrol Division in its campaign to reduce drug traffic and use in Nevada.

The ICE/ K-9 teams in Las Vegas and Reno have recorded the following seizures for Calendar Year 2010.

Please see the link below for the individual monthly statistics.

Nevada's ICE Seizures 2010 (pdf)

The ICE/ K-9 teams in Las Vegas and Reno have recorded the following seizures for Calendar Year 2009:

We are very proud of our Nevada DPS ICE/K-9 Unit. The K-9 officers and canines have worked diligently to reduce the amount of illicit drugs in Nevada’s communities.  Although the program is still in it’s’ infancy stage, we are progressing rapidly and learning each day.  The DPS ICE/K-9 teams were extremely successful in 2009 and we looked forward to even greater achievements and successes throughout the upcoming year.