The nose on Ceres Police Department canine Duke helped officers net the discovery and seizure of a package containing $72,000 worth of marijuana on Wednesday.

Ceres Police Detective James Riley, currently assigned to the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency, was working a parcel interdiction case when he identified several suspicious packages and called in the drug detecting ability of the Ceres Police Department canines. In response to his request at 3 p.m. Officer/canine handler Jesse Gutierrez brought in Duke. The dog sniffed the packages and immediately alerted on the presence of drug odor. Gutierrez relayed this information to Riley and the two packages were seized, and then opened.

Officers seized 20 vacuum-sealed bags containing high-grade, indoor-grown marijuana buds. One pound of this proceed marijuana has a street value of approximate $3,600. In this case, $72,000 worth of marijuana was removed from circulation.

Anyone who has information on drug activity they are encouraged to contact law enforcement.