Puerto Rico’s Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (DCR) gave an honorary promotion to sergeant and honorable retirement to three dogs from its Canine Unit: Yale, Katy and Bator, at a ceremony at the DCR Academy in Ponce attended by the full Canine Unit and its handlers. Secretary Julie Gómez Gómez said the promotion recognizes their record of drug seizures, cellphone detections and anti-contraband operations.
Katy, specialized in detecting controlled substances, took part in interventions that led to the arrest of two civilian employees, one corrections officer and roughly 75 inmates; on July 19, 2022 one of her operations seized 50 kilograms of cocaine valued at an estimated $4.1 million at the Ponce Correctional Complex. She began in Mayagüez with handler Christopher Reyes Lorenzo, later served in Arecibo under Miguel A. Vélez Montijo, and spent her final year under Lieutenant Omar Ruiz Olavarría after being diagnosed with cancer.
Bator, of the Mayagüez unit and handled by José Hilerio Vélez, specialized in cellphone detection and contributed to about 90 inmate arrests and seizures of equipment valued at nearly $500,000. Yale, of the Guayama unit, worked with handler Alexi Feliciano Tarafa locating cellphones. Gómez Gómez called the Canine Unit the best in Puerto Rico and an ally of state and federal law enforcement agencies; the three dogs also took part in educational demonstrations at schools, camps and universities.