BCA Adds Two New K-9 Officers

(KNSI) – Eight new legs have been added to help the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension fight crime. Those eight legs come in the form of two K-9 officers, Sebastian and Mabel.

Sebastian is a two-year-old Black Lab who came to the BCA from the Netherlands. He is partnered with BCA Special Agent Dan Sachi. Mabel is a one-year-old Black Lab who came to the BCA from Hungary. She is partnered with BCA Special Agent Sean Mooney. The furry officers are trained to locate electronic evidence such as USB drives, cell phones and micro-SD cards. They locate evidence by recognizing the odor of triphenylphosphine oxide, or TPPO – a chemical coating on all memory storage chips in electronic devices. These sometimes-tiny pieces of evidence can bring significant value to investigations.

Special Agent Mike Flanagan, who leads the BCA K-9 program, explains, “When a critical piece of evidence can be as small as a pinky nail, being able to locate it by its odor instead of visually can make the difference in a case.” K-9s Mabel and Sebastian completed their training in July and have now begun their work. Their primary focus will be with child exploitation cases. They will also assist with locating evidence in financial crimes, homicides and other cases where electronic storage devices may contain valuable evidence.

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