Gang Puts Big Bounty on Head of a Dog

A drug-sniffing Colombian police dog with nearly 250 arrests under her collar recently tracked down more than 10 tons of coke from a major drug gang. The gang's reaction: a bounty on the pooch's head that may be up to $70,000. The Telegraph reports that Sombra (Spanish for "shadow") has had to be moved from the drug-trafficking hot spot of Turbo, in Colombia's Uraba region, to the relatively safer El Dorado International Airport in Bogota after what the BBC calls the country's "most powerful criminal organization" decided she should be killed. The 6-year-old German shepherd also now has a dedicated security detail, with extra officers keeping her and her handler safe from the Urabeños, aka the Gulf Clan.

The Washington Post notes Sombra, who has been with the National Police of Colombia since she was a puppy, is "something of a folk hero" in the country due to her legendary drug busts, with local media dubbing her "the terror" of narcotics traffickers. The "friendly, calm canine" often shows up on TV and in pictures with fans, and the police boast about her on Twitter. Which is why Urabeños members were enraged enough to offer the bounty, which police intelligence reports note could range anywhere from $7,000 to $70,000. "The fact they want to hurt Sombra and offer such a high reward for her capture or death shows the impact she's had on their profits," a police rep tells the Telegraph. (Sometimes drug-sniffing dogs face danger from the drugs themselves.)