Illegal drugs seized in pub sniffer dog searches

Police dog Skye helped identify people carrying illegal drugs

Police have seized illegal drugs in an undercover operation in east Cornwall.

Officers targeted seven pubs in Saltash and Liskeard on Friday and employed police dog Skye to detect the presence of drugs.

Plain clothes officers noted customers in the pubs who avoided the dog or acted suspiciously in her presence.

Three people out of seven who were stopped and searched were found to be carrying suspected illegal drugs, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

Three people suspected to have been carrying illegal drugs were asked to attend voluntary police interviews under caution

Those individuals were asked to attend voluntary police interviews under caution at a later date after the seized items were tested, police said.

Officers said drug wipes they carried out in the pubs' toilets showed drug residue in eight out of the 14 tested.

Sgt Dan Lewis, who led Operation PAD (Pubs Against Drugs), said it had helped the police gain "a real understanding of the extent of the presence of illegal drugs on a typical Friday night in Saltash and other local towns".

He said it was a proactive operation intended to disrupt the use of recreational drugs in pubs.

Police found eight out of 14 of the pub toilets they drug-wiped showed the presence of drugs

Police visited five pubs in Saltash and two in Liskeard, and made second visits to two of them.

Skye was deployed to detect the presence of illegal drugs by walking past people and alerting her handler, PC Waters, when she identified the scent.

Plain clothes officers in each pub identified and searched people who acted suspiciously or actively avoided the police dog.

Sgt Lewis said: "Operations like this provide us with a great opportunity to have honest conversations with members of the public, and raise awareness of the risks of carrying, using, or supplying drugs.”