Officials of the State Customs Service paid a working visit to the Field Operations Canine (FOK9) Academy in Front Royal, Virginia and the Border Patrol Canine (BPK9) Academy in El Paso, Texas of the United States of America with the assistance of the US State Department and the US Embassy in Ukraine as part of the Program implementation of Export Control and Border Security in Ukraine (EXBS). This event is a landmark for the expansion of international contacts within the scope of increasing the potential of canine services of the State Customs Service and the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the WCO RTC / RDTC (Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine) for 2022-2025.

The delegation of the State Customs Service, headed by Raikov Denis, Director of the Department for Combating Smuggling and Violations of Customs Rules, included not only representatives of the customs, as well as the Department for Specialized Training and Canine Services of the State Customs Service WCO RTC / RDTC (Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine).

The participants of the event gained valuable experience in canine teams training in both customs and border areas, having familiarized themselves with the organization, planning and directions of training of instructors and canine teams, material and technical support, the selection procedure, maintenance and purchase of service dogs, training methods and possibilities of veterinary care. For its part, this event also gave the Ukrainian side an opportunity to present State Customs Service canine activities to the general public.

During the visit, the canine teams of both academies demonstrated their work on the selection of service dogs, as well as the search for narcotics in premises and on vehicles. In addition, the participant(s) visited the Ysleta Port of Entry (on the border with Mexico), which has additional threats of illegal movement of goods due to its geographic location.

Based on the results of the meeting, the parties agreed on directions for further cooperation.