K9 Finds $10.5 Million Worth of Cocaine During Las Vegas Traffic Stop, Police Say

What a good boy! A K9 named “Nuggetz” took $10.5 million worth of cocaine off the Las Vegas streets during a traffic stop Friday morning, according to police.

At around 2:30 a.m., detectives pulled over a semi-truck for erratic driving near St. Rose Parkway and I-15, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) said in a press release. “The nervous driver had a story that didn’t add up,” police noted.

After Nuggetz gave a positive alert for drugs, authorities conducted a search and discovered “230 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $10.5 million dollars,” police said.

The LVMPD arrested Nanak Singh, 29, and Chandra Prakash, 31, and booked them for trafficking of a controlled substance.

K9s make invaluable officers for their skills in apprehension, detection, and search and rescue efforts, the American Kennel Club (AKC) says. Dogs are great at detection because of their strong sense of smell, thanks to the 225 million scent receptors in their noses. For reference, there are five million scent receptors in a human’s nose.

The AKC says some of the most popular police dog breeds include Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds, Bloodhounds, Dutch Shepherds, and Labrador Retrievers. Training K9s can cost anywhere from $12,000-$15,000, and most of the animals’ law enforcement careers do not exceed six years, Police1 reported.

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