By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — He is relatively new on the job at the Los Angeles Police Department, but Bosco, a 2-year-old Dutch shepherd, has a nose for trouble.
The narcotics detection canine sniffed out the secret held inside a soda vending machine at a downtown L.A. repair garage — it contained a large stash of heroin, fentanyl and an assault rifle, police said.
“There was a lot more than Coke in that soda machine,” said LAPD Capt. Lillian Carranza, who oversees the Gang and Narcotics Division, which includes several K-9 officers.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Department investigators were conducting a search warrant Friday at the undisclosed garage location in central Los Angeles and requested LAPD assistance with one of its canines, Carranza said.
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Bosco, with six months of experience on the job, entered the garage and keyed in on the soda machine. From the outside, it looked like any other in businesses across L.A., but investigators opened up the machine and found 15 pounds of heroin, a kilogram of fentanyl and an assault-style rifle concealed inside, according to Carranza.
“Bosco is amazing. This is his third deployment. He is finding everything,” said Carranza, who often posts images of her division’s canine standouts on social media. “When regular officers cannot find anything, he can perform miracles.”
The LAPD would not provide further details about the bust because it was part of a larger ongoing investigation by Ventura County sheriff’s detectives, Carranza said.
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