When it comes to sniffing out trouble, Lombe is all in.
The 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, one of five working dogs with the North Las Vegas Police Department.
On Tuesday, putting his skills to the test for a demonstration of a drug search inside police headquarters.
“I would call an alert to that cabinet drawer,” says K9 officer Case Kepner. “He's not leaving it; he's pointing at it.”
Kepner says law enforcement K9s are invaluable when it comes to drug detection.
“Their nose is their money maker which is a million times stronger than a human nose,” he says.
And earlier this month, a big bust for the team.
Eighty pounds of methamphetamine, taken off the streets with the help of K9 Jimmy.
Kepner says it’s all a game for the dogs.
“We've done that in the beginning of training we've paired the odor of the narcotics with a favorite toy that is so high drive that's what they love,” says Kepner. “They don't know they're searching for drugs; they think they're searching for their toy.”
But the North Las Vegas bust isn’t the only major recovery in the valley.
In April, the DEA seized over 50 pounds of meth from inside a Las Vegas hotel room.
A 26-year-old California man was arrested and charged.
Kevin Adams is Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the Las Vegas District Office of the DEA.
“If you look nationally fentanyl is a major problem,” says Adams. “But if you look at local dynamics there's twice as many people within the last 3 years that overdosed from meth related overdose than fentanyl.”
And here’s a few numbers from the Clark County Coroner’s office.
In 2021, 535 people od’d on meth in our community, compared to 248 from fentanyl.
In 2022, those numbers jumped to 574 and 296.
Adams says while fentanyl is increasing at a faster rate, here in Southern Nevada meth remains the drug of choice.
“Maybe 10-15 years ago we thought of people mixing up meth in their garage, it's not that anymore, it's coming across the border?” asks reporter Denise Rosch.
“Correct,” says Adams. “We're targeting these distribution organizations. It's the same organizations distributing fentanyl that are distributing methamphetamine. The same Mexican cartels.”
Las Vegan Stacy Ledesma understands the human toll of meth addiction.
Describing her own past with the drug scene.
“It was chaos,” says Ledesma. “A lot of lying, a lot of manipulating.”
Ledesma first tried meth in high school. She was 31 years old before she got help.
Today, she’s a counselor at Desert Hope Treatment Center.
Offering support and understanding to others on the same journey.
“I look at it like this, either I'm working on my recovery or I'm working towards relapse,” she explains. “There's no being complacent. I learned by addiction is right outside and it's running laps, and it's doing pushups and it's just waiting for that moment to sneak back in my life.”
“Methamphetamines are a pretty short addiction window,” adds the center’s Director of Nursing Jonathan Sprecher. “It's one, two times and the brain starts screaming for it (meth).”
Sprecher says Desert Hope is 100% voluntary, using medical detox and therapy to treat addiction.
But it won’t work unless the patient is ready to change.
“This is something you have to really want. Because it's hard,” says Sprecher. “Recovery is hard, recovery is not the easiest thing you'll ever do. If it was easy as I tell people, you would have done it last weekend at home.”
As for those recent busts, health experts and law enforcement agree on one important point.
“We can't just arrest our way out of the problem,” says Adams. “We have to reduce the demand as well.”
Until that happens there is Lombe.
“Lots of energy. Imagine having a toddler constantly with you,” laughs Officer Kepner while his dog continues to sniff for hidden narcotics. “Good boy, you found it!”
A four-legged soldier, working the front lines in the valley’s fight against meth.