A day in the life of Melba, a highly skilled veteran drug-sniffing dog! He is currently working at Tokyo Customs at Narita and Haneda Airports!

A “Drug Detection Dog” of the highest caliber is active in the field

Among the drug-sniffing dogs working throughout Japan, Melba, who has been a drug-sniffing dog for eight years, has made history.

In February 2007, he discovered about 30 kg of methamphetamine (equivalent to 1.8 billion yen) in two suitcases belonging to a passenger arriving at Narita Airport from Montreal, Canada. The methamphetamine was divided into 30 sachets and cleverly hidden in clothing, but Melba did not miss it.

The seizure, amounting to about 30 kilograms from an airline passenger, is the largest quantity in the country’s history. Melba made a major breakthrough by stopping the largest smuggling operation in history in advance. Customs has seized more than one ton of illicit drugs for eight consecutive years since 2008, but we cannot talk about this without the efforts of drug-sniffing dogs”.

Melba is a female Labrador retriever who turned eight years old this year. Since being certified as a drug-sniffing dog in 2005, she has been active mainly at Narita and Haneda airports. The current handler, who has been paired with Melba for three years and is the third generation of the pair, answered our questions in an interview.

Melba said, “Labradors are said to be a breed that is easily dependent on their owners, but Melba is easy to manipulate no matter who is holding the leash. When it comes to investigations, he is so highly motivated to work that he will stick his nose into the crevices of the cargo to be searched on his own, without my assistance. If he senses the scent of illicit drugs, he will follow the scent to its source and find it, even without instructions.