FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 K-9 Willow, a narcotics detection dog credited with helping take large amounts of drugs, firearms and cash tied to trafficking off the streets, is retiring from the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office because of age-related medical issues.<\/p>\n
Willow, a Springer Spaniel, was born in 2017 and was sworn in at the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office in May 2020. <\/p>\n
He was assigned to the Special Investigations Task Force as a narcotics detection dog.<\/p>\n
During his career, Willow worked alongside local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, California Highway Patrol, Fresno Police Department and the United States Postal Service, among others.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said Willow played a part in seizing more than 1,500 pounds of illegal narcotics, including fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and ketamine.<\/p>\n
He also assisted in locating more than 530,000 fentanyl-laced M30 pills and helped locate more than 20 firearms during narcotics-related investigations.<\/p>\n
In addition, Willow played a role in locating more than $2.5 million in drug proceeds, disrupting the financial operations of individuals and organizations involved in trafficking and distributing illegal narcotics, the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office noted that Willow\u2019s work ranged from searching vehicles on the side of highways to working through buildings, checking packages and assisting other agencies.<\/p>\n
With his working days over, Willow will continue living with his patrol partner, Deputy Colegio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 K-9 Willow, a narcotics detection dog credited with helping take large amounts of drugs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-448779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}