The Customs Administration’s canine division last year helped customs officers intercept 758kg of illegal drugs, which were valued at NT$330 million (US$11.86 million).
Most of the narcotics detected by sniffer dogs were ketamine, the agency said.
Taiwan has 37 detection dogs, with each dog working with one dog handler, it added.
Photo courtesy of the Customs Administration’s Detector Dog Breeding and Training Center
Detection dogs are put on duty whenever high-risk flights arrive, and they must finish sniffing the luggage in about 10 minutes, it added.
The Customs Detector Dog Breeding and Training Center said that drug traffickers in Central and South American countries have tried to scare sniffer dogs by spraying cargo with the smell of wolves.
However, the tactic failed to distract the dogs, as it only caused them to act abnormally, the center said.
Some drug smugglers also tried wrapping contraband with carbon copy paper to avoid detection by X-ray machines, but sniffer dogs began behaving strangely when they smelled the carbon copy paper, it said.
Detection dogs are trained to sit down whenever they smell narcotics, but part of the center’s training is to train dog handlers to detect any change in canine behavior, it said.
With the establishment of the Maritime Express Consignments Clearance service at the Keelung Customs Office and the construction of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 expected to be completed in 2026, the center said it is aiming to expand the canine division from 37 to 44 sniffer dogs by 2025.
The center said that its main task in the next few years is to train more Labradors to find tobacco, narcotics or explosives on behalf of the Military Police Command, the National Fire Agency, the National Police Agency, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine, and other agencies.
The success rate of training Labrador puppies to become detection dogs has reached more than 20 percent, as puppies born from second-generation dams tend to be stronger and healthier, it said.
As the number of puppies is expected to double in the next three years, people living south of Taoyuan or north of Yunlin County are encouraged to become foster families of puppies, the center said, adding that companies in central Taiwan can offer facilities for puppy training.
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