Four Labrador dogs trained by Australian Customs graduated from a drug-detection class and joined Chinese customs yesterday to start their sniffing duties in Beijing.

As part of a two-year co-operation project between Australian and Chinese customs to stem the flow of illegal drugs, about 20 trained narcotics detector dogs will head for China in two years, a source with China General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

During an assignment, Quip and Mambo, two of the Labrador hounds trained to detect narcotics, got excited hunting for heroin and other drugs concealed inside wooden boxes and luggage placed in two rows.

"They love the work and look for the drugs because they want their toy reward," said Su Fei, a handler at Beijing Customs, after Mambo scoured for drugs during an exercise.

"Well-trained dogs like them are able to identify thousands of different odours and play a big role in the battle against drug smuggling," said Bernie Short, a chief handler from Australian Customs, an agency leading the way in breeding and training sniffing dogs around the world.

The dogs will be deployed in Yunnan Province in Southwest China, Shenzhen in South China and Beijing in the fight against illegal drugs.

Under the programme, Australia will also help China establish its own dog breeding centre.

"I'm looking forward to the next phase of the programme when some pups for the breeding arrive in China early next year," said Alan Thomas, Australian ambassador to Beijing.

Since 1991, GAC has used 41 drug detection dogs in its agencies throughout China.

So far this year, these dogs have detected more than 107 kilograms of drugs including heroin, cocaine and amphetamine.

(China Daily November 18, 2005)