Sniffer dogs detect drugs at Tbilisi Airport

Drug traffickers be warned - drug detection dogs are in action at Tbilisi International Airport.

From today, people who illegally bring drugs into Georgia are facing human and animal intervention in a bid to reduce illegal drug importation into Georgia.

Five internationally-trained police dogs are now based at Tbilisi International Airport.

Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandre Tchikaidze opened the special K-9 project today, which saw officers from the Georgian Interior and Finances Ministries, together with five police dogs (K-9), tasked with enacting a drug detection scene at the airport.

The human-animal drug detection teams undertook an intensive eight-week training course in the US where they learnt the latest skills to detect drug smuggling.

The event was attended by US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland, First Assistant Secretary of Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Carol Perez and Georgia’s Minister of Finance Nodar Khaduri.

Norland said any project that aimed to fight against drugs was of great importance, even more so now that Georgia had signed an Association Agreement with the European Union. He said the project was fully harmonized with EU regulations.

Perez noted drugs were a global problem and thanked Georgia for improving its capability to combat drug smuggling.

"We thank Georgia for joining us with this project as drug dealers do not recognize borders,” she said.

The service dogs will work at Tbilisi International Airport and will be housed in air-cages that meet international standards, said Georgia’s Interior Ministry.