Zilos

RUPERT -- Local law enforcement officials are applauding a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the use of K-9 drug dogs.

In a decision rendered last week, the court vacated an Illinois Supreme Court decision that overturned the conviction of Roy Cabelles on charges of narcotics possession.

Cabelles was stopped for speeding and during the stop an Illinois drug detection officer walked his K-9 around Cabelles vehicle while another officer wrote a warning ticket. The dog indicated on the trunk of the car, where officers found marijuana and arrested Cabelles on narcotics charges.

Cabelles attorneys petitioned the court to throw the evidence out, saying the search was illegal because the officers did not have probable cause to search his car. But the court held the dog's reaction was probable cause.

"This is a giant leap for K-9s, to affirm where we are trying to go with drug dogs," said Heyburn Police Chief and K-9 trainer George Warrell Jr.

"The dogs are a valuable tool for us in our fight against drugs -- without which our hands would be really tied. And the dogs are not intrusive of anyone's right to privacy."

Cabelles was convicted, sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $256,136.

The Illinois Supreme Court said Cabelles' right to privacy was invaded by the search because there was no reason for the officers to suspect anything illegal in the car.

The U.S. Supreme Court said, unlike the use of infrared detectors that provide a more intimate display, drug-sniffing dogs rely on the scent of drugs alone and thereby do not indicate probable cause unless contraband is present.

"It is not an invasion of a person's rights for a drug dog to be used to go around a vehicle or sniff the outside of a suitcase or a person," said Cassia County Prosecutor Al Barrus.

"This decision is a wonderful win for law enforcement in their effort to take our fight against drugs one further step. People do not have a constitutional right to possess illegal drugs."

Barrus said high courts have ruled against the use of infrared detectors because they provide law enforcement with a more intimate observance of a person's personal space than should constitutionally be allowed.

"But the dogs rely on scent alone and, while people have a right to be secure on their own private property, they have no right to grow dope or, as in this case, transport it," Barrus said.

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