The Thai Customs Department has announced the adoption of sniffer dogs to detect narcotic drugs hidden in imported and exported goods, adding that its practices have been upgraded to meet international standards.
A ceremony was held on May 8 to mark the beginning of the construction of the Thai Customs Canine Training Center in Samut Prakan’s Bang Phli district. International customs attaches were also present at the ceremony.
According to Patchara Anuntasilpa, Director-General of the Customs Department, current technologies used to detect drugs and other illegal products have limitations, but the use of sniffer dogs in customs handling is expected to help transcend these limitations.
The U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Australia are among the countries that use sniffer dogs in their customs handling and have formal dog training centers. The Customs Department has been consulting these countries on how to effectively use dogs to detect illegal products before setting up the Samut Prakan center. Currently, two customs officers are attending a training program on working with sniffer dogs at an institution certified by the KCS Detector Dog Training Center in Incheon.
The construction of the canine training facility, a one-story building plus an outdoor dog-training ground situated on a two-rai plot of land, is expected to be completed by the end of next month and fully operational in August. (NNT)
