Mexico City - An elite Mexican sniffer dog kidnapped five days ago was found abandoned in a Mexico City park on Monday and reunited with its police handlers.
Working on a tip, federal police found Rex IV - a highly trained Belgian Malinois sheepdog with a string of drug hauls to its name - tied to a tree in a park in the gritty Iztapalapa neighbourhood, a Public Security Ministry spokesperson said.
"When they realised the police were on to them, they abandoned him in a park," the spokesperson said, adding that the dog's identity was confirmed by scanning an embedded electronic chip.
The dog, part of an elite drug squad, was snatched from Mexico City airport on August 22 while it was en route for an operation in the northern state of Sinaloa.
The thieves left a black mongrel puppy in its travel cage.
Police only realized Rex IV was missing when the puppy turned up in Mazatlan airport, Sinaloa.
They feared the stolen dog, which one official compared to an intelligence agent, could help smugglers find new ways to conceal drug stashes.