Abd Karim calls for Putrajaya to provide more drug sniffer dogs for Sarawak

KUCHING (July 30): Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is calling on Putrajaya to provide law enforcement agencies in Sarawak with more drug sniffer dogs.

The state Youth, Sport and Entrepreneur Development Minister, who is also Malaysia Drugs Prevention Association (Pemadam) Sarawak chairman, said this requirement is due to the massive size of the state but very few law enforcement personnel.

“Sarawak is such a huge state in terms of area size. Drugs can enter the state from many places here, which is why we need more dogs to detect them. Humans cannot detect drugs (without the use of devices) but dogs can.

“But we cannot just buy or train more dogs because it is under the jurisdiction of the federal government,” he told reporters after chairing the state level Drug Prevention Action Council meeting at the Baitul Makmur II building here today.

“They must be taken care of carefully and a special budget is allocated to take care of them if they are in service for the law enforcement,” he added.

Abdul Karim stressed the importance of having more drug sniffer dogs in Sarawak as there are too few canines trained for that purpose, and urged the federal government to set an allocation to purchase and train more of them to be placed at entry points around the country.

He said that Malaysia already has many airports, ports, Immigration posts and parcel offices where drugs are smuggled in, but not enough sniffer dogs to be deployed.

“Members of the public are concerned with the increase in the number of drug abuse and smuggling cases in the country, including in Sarawak, where it has now spread to villages, homes and farming areas in the interior,” he added.