Cokey, The Dog Who Smuggled Cocaine, Gets A New Home

BAY SHORE, N.Y. - If Cokey could only talk, what a story she would tell.

But the dog who was once a mule can only bark. So it's up to her new owner - a U.S. Customs inspector from Long Island who once saved her life - to explain about the cocaine and emergency surgery and international drug smuggling.

And wagging tails.

"She gets along pretty good with my other dogs," said Customs Inspector Mike Maloney, who recently adopted the 5-year-old Old English sheepdog. "After a little sniffing, everything was just fine."

Maloney first laid eyes on Cokey more than a year ago, when she arrived at New York's Kennedy Airport as freight on an Avianca flight from Colombia.

That alone made Maloney suspicious. Most dogs, he said, come in as baggage, with an owner waiting to pick them up. Freight-sent dogs are unusual, and dogs from Colombia are more unusual still. Also, Maloney said, "She was very sick. I felt her belly. It looked like she was pregnant. It was very hard, very rigid."

But it wasn't pregnancy. It was cocaine - 5 pounds of Colombian cocaine - stuffed in condoms and wrapped in 10 balloons that had been surgically implanted in the dog's abdomen. The balloons had not been sterilized, and the dog was suffering from a massive infection.

A veterinarian surgically removed $250,000 worth of cocaine under the watchful eye of U.S. Customs, and a man from New Jersey was arrested the next day when he came to claim the dog.

After the trial, Cokey, who got her nickname from the Customs Service, became the official mascot at the Customs Canine Enforcement Training Center in Front Royal, Va., where she also assisted customs inspectors in drug-awareness programs. This summer, she was a guest on "Donahue," Maloney said.

But, after a year, it was time for her to go back to being a dog. And, when Maloney heard about it, he knew the perfect place for her to go - his family's back yard.

"We have two dogs and four cats," he said. "We've got plenty of room. . . . a big fenced-in yard. One of my dogs is 12 years old . . . it's time to get another one."