Dog sniffs out cocaine hidden in wheelchair at Milan airport

ROME (AP) — A drug-sniffing dog has led frontier police at a Milan airport to discover some 13 kilograms (nearly 30 pounds) of cocaine stuffed into the upholstery of a motorized wheelchair, whose user was immediately arrested. Financial Guard police said on Friday that the canine unit was on patrol at Malpensa airport to check arriving passengers and their luggage from a flight from the Dominican Republic, since previously drug couriers had used that route. When a dog drew officers’ attention to the traveler, police checked luggage, which yielded nothing, then slashed the wheelchair’s upholstery, discovering the cocaine. Police said when the cocaine was found, the chair user, a Spaniard, got up from the wheelchair and walked unaided.