Dogs snoop around the palace

Dogs snoop around the palace

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an impromptu operation dogs were deployed around the
presidential palace grounds in Jakarta on Monday to search for
drugs among security guards. Fortunately nothing was found on the
soldiers.

A senior official of the presidential guards told The Jakarta
Post that security guard commander Maj. Gen. Nono Sampono ordered
the inspection to ensure that none of his soldiers were involved
in drug abuse.

"We did not find anything on them, and most of them found the
inspection quite funny ... they were laughing when the dogs
started snooping around their posts in the palace," said an
official, who asked not to be named.

Six dogs from the National Police Animal Center started the
abrupt inspection at 10 a.m. by searching all military posts of
the security guards around the palace.

Most of the soldiers initially looked puzzled with the
inspection, but were amused when the dogs started to do their job
of searching through the post.

"I was really surprised with the inspection, we never even
heard of the commander wanting to conduct such a search. But, it
is OK," one of on-duty soldiers said, laughing.

When asked the reason behind the abrupt inspection, the senior
officer said that it was important to make sure that all soldiers
were free from drugs as part of the national campaign against
drug abuse.

When further pushed whether there were indications of illegal
drug use among the soldiers prompting the commander to conduct
the inspection, the officer simply said: "No."

It was unclear whether a similar search would also be
conducted among the security guards at the Vice President's
office.