Croatia: Police Dog Johnny Sniffs Out Cocaine Worth $2.5 Million

Published: 29 June 2020

Ploče kokain

Croatian Police Crime Squad with sniffer dog Johnny and seized cocaine. (Photo: Dubrovnik County Police)

By Zdravko Ljubas

Croatian authorities seized on Saturday nearly 25 kilograms of cocaine after a police dog sniffed the drugs out during a routine traffic control near the southern coastal city of Ploče. The drugs have an estimated street value of HRK17 million (US$2.5 million), police said.

Officers stopped a 49-year-old Italian citizen during one of the traffic checks routinely conducted in areas close to the country’s borders. Ploče is about 15 kilometers away from the Bosnian border, although the suspect apparently did not come from there.

The head of the Dubrovnik Crime Squad, Zoran Tikvica, said at a press conference that all the credit for discovering the record amount of drugs found in Croatia's south in the past 20 years goes to Johnny, a two-year-old Belgian Shepherd who proudly sat next to his trophy as officials displayed the cocaine blocks to reporters.

After Johnny sniffed them out, police obtained a court order to search the vehicle and found the 21 packages in a hidden compartment under the front passenger seat. It is believed that the cocaine was intended for the markets in western Europe.

The arrested Italian citizen was charged with “illegal drug production and trafficking.”