Meet the elite K-9 unit helping to protect El Chapo's trial - New York Post

There's an elite team of public defenders on the case of accused drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Brooklyn federal court — and they're working like dogs.

The four-legged group is part of the Explosive Detection Dogs unit of the United States Marshals Service and currently assigned to the international high-profile case to keep both its notorious defendant — and the courthouse — safe.

"They are trained to detect up to 19,000 different types of explosive combinations," said one of the K-9s' handlers, a US deputy marshal whose name is being withheld by The Post for security reasons.

The handlers and their team of a dozen highly trained pooches take turns scouring the federal courthouse daily for explosives and accelerants.

The unidentified K-9 handler, whose 2-year-old dog is called Kaiser, flew in from Colorado with her pooch for the special assignment.

Another handler jetted in with his dog, Brando, 6, from Washington, DC.

US Marshal Service Chief Inspector Michael Pyo said the K-9 units are working 12-hour shifts to keep the Downtown Brooklyn courthouse safe from the accused drug lord's overzealous allies — and his enemies.

Pyo said the canines perform two kinds of jobs: "Protective, like a Chapo trial, a judicial conference or a protective detail, and investigative, where they assist law enforcement with searching for explosives and firearms.

"These dogs are specially trained to sniff out explosives, accelerates, and firearms. They're not trained for narcotics," Pyo added.

Rashid Umar Abbasi

The Chapo K-9s also seem to have taken on an additional role: that of temporary companion dogs, at least for Assistant US Attorney Andrea Goldbarg, who was seen doling out belly scratches to them ahead of one recent trial day.

The pups work for food.

"Our dogs are food-reward trained," Pyo said. "So they only eat when they work."

While the dogs' seven-day-a-week routine might sound grueling, the animals are all for it.

"They love working. They're like a kid in the candy store," Kaiser's handler said as he and Brando rolled around on the floor playing between work shifts.

The USMS K-9s are collected from training schools for guide dogs and are all Labradors or Lab mixes, according to Pyo.

"It's not that they've flunked [as guide dogs]. I like to think of it as a career change," he said.

After their initial round of schooling, the dogs undergo additional training at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and then are assigned to a deputy US marshal.