Posted by Smarty on 05/04/07 21:03

Hong Kong - Lucky and Flo, the Motion Picture Association's DVD-sniffing
black
Labrador retrievers, today dealt another blow to Malaysian movie pirates,
leading
investigators to secret storage compartments containing nearly 150,000
pirated
movie DVDs.

In a search of two retail outlets suspected of selling pirated movie DVDs in
the
Petaling Jaya district of Kuala Lumpur, 17 officers from Malaysia's Ministry
of
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) were unable to discover any
contraband until Lucky and Flo detected hidden compartments packed with
pirated DVDs ready for wholesale distribution. The MDTCA officers arrested
two
men and seized nearly 150,000 seized discs with an estimated street value of
US$430,000.

On March 20, Lucky and Flo led a raid in Johor Bahru that yielded six
arrests and
the seizure around one million pirated optical discs with a street value of
around
US$2.86 million.

"Today's raid, during which Lucky and Flo uncovered secret compartments that
human investigators had missed, reconfirmed that DVD-sniffing dogs can
provide
tremendous support to law enforcement authorities," said Mike Ellis, Senior
Vice
President and Regional Director, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture
Association.

Lucky and Flo, the world's first dogs trained to find optical discs in
packages and
containers used by pirate syndicates for smuggling stolen movies around the
world, are in Malaysia spearheading "Operation Double Trouble", launched
last
week in Kuala Lumpur.

During the month-long operation, the dogs are working alongside enforcement
officers in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Penang, as well as at border
crossings,
sniffing out DVDs hidden at storage centers as well as in packages bound for
export. The operation is in part aimed at permitting the officers to
thoroughly
evaluate the effectiveness of canine anti-piracy investigators as the MDTCA
considers the feasibility of establishing a dog unit within its Enforcement
Division.

In 2004, the MPA undertook a feasibility study to determine whether dogs
could
be trained to detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in optical
discs. A
trainer in Northern Ireland known for training dogs to locate and identify
bombs
trained Lucky and Flo to find optical discs in large and small packages and
containers.

After eight months of training, Lucky and Flo undertook their first major
live test,
working with H.M. Revenue and Customs and FedEx at Stansted Airport in the
United Kingdom. They were immediately successful in identifying packages
containing DVDs and detecting even the smallest amount of product in very
large
containers.

http://www.mpaa.org/press_releases/malaysiadogsapril2rel.pdf

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