Meet Fent: The new K9 meant to crack down on the fentanyl crisis in West Virginia

WHITE HALL, W.Va. (WBOY) — As the fentanyl crisis continues across West Virginia , so does law enforcement’s work at seizing this drug, including the White Hall Police Department’s newest team member: Fent.

The pure-bred Belgian Malinois is the first K9 in the area and one of a few in the state that can detect fentanyl. His name was changed to reflect his unique set of skills.

“Fent is trained to detect coke, meth, heroin and fentanyl, and he can be used anywhere, whether it’s roadside for cars or packages at the post office, anything like that,” said Fent’s handler, Police K9 Officer David Hunt.

“I think we’ve had Fent less than a week and mainly what we’ve been doing is trying to provide a bond with me and the dog, he’s a great dog so far, he really likes belly rubs and does just about anything for kibble,” added Hunt.

In the past, police canines were trained to detect marijuana, but Officer Hunt said the general focus has now shifted to fentanyl. “So instead of training marijuana, we’re training fentanyl now which is a substance that will kill somebody,” said Hunt.

In 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized more than 77 million pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder nationally.

Makor K9 is the company behind the around 18-month-old canine’s training. With four decades of experience training FBI, TSA and other agencies across the country and world, but they said they tackle drug sniffing differently by how they teach their dogs to indicate when something has been found; they don’t have them sit as the dogs can “cheat” or get tired and sit.

“We teach them to sniff, they’ll go to it and lock up and they’ll be sniffing, so our method is 100 percent proof so they cannot fault, they cannot indicate other than the narcotics they’re trained to find,” Makor K9 WV Trainer Nicholas Kerr said.

The drugs Fent is training to identify are dangerous and deadly, but Makor K9 said they take steps to make sure the four-legged officer and his handler stay safe during training by using a fentanyl tab created by Precision Explosives .

“The guy, he’s a nuclear physicist and he takes the molecules, breaks them down and presses it into a piece of plastic and then puts two pieces of metal to both sides and turns it into a magnet, and there’s no chance at all of you come in contact and overdosing,” said Kerr.

The department received funding from drug seizures and the City of White Hall to pay for the $16,500 canine and the cost of training. With the training, Fent can not only detect drugs but also track and apprehend people, which has earned him a label as a “dual-purpose” K9 officer.

“So my hope for this dog is that we can go out and we can catch these drug dealers that are actually poisoning our citizens because the drug users aren’t the problem,” said Hunt.

Fent is rewarded with his favorite toy, a bright blue ball on a neon string that he gets to play with when he detects narcotics.

Other training will include mock traffic stops out on the field, with public works employees volunteering for the task. Fent has also been taken to schools for after-hour training in searching lockers. Kerr said Fent should be ready to go out on the field in about three weeks and can be deployed to go across the state alongside Hunt.

You can keep up with Fent’s adventures on his very own Facebook page here .

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