First Nations in N.W.T. turn to private K9 company to sniff out drugs, alcohol

The two Káshó Got’ı̨nę leaders are part of a pilot project that sees dogs search luggage and cargo for drugs, alcohol and dangerous goods on airplanes departing Yellowknife for Fort Good Hope and Délįnę. “To us, every seizure is a potential life saved. We live there and know everyone is affected by the loss of community members,” said Tobac. “In only the first month, dozens of packages of dangerous goods and substances were detected. We see a documented decrease in crime statistics, especially domestic violence, and a decrease in mental health calls for services.” The communities of Fort Good Hope and Délįnę are both part of the 10 communities in the N.W.T. with restrictions on alcohol, whereby the quantity and frequency are limited. An additional six of the 33 communities are currently under prohibition, also known as a “dry” community. Grandjambe said the program is costing the First Nation roughly over forty thousand dollars a month, and they will be appealing to the territorial and federal government for funding. “We’re just a small community, and it’s costing us a lot of money, but we have to do something because we are starting to have homicides in our community and it’s all drug-related,” Chief Grandjambe said. “The community is pretty quiet in the day; it seems like people are adapting to more of a nightlife, and there’s constant traffic at night.” To act meant investing in prevention Mark Hicks is a retired RCMP officer with 32 years of service, including 25 as a canine handler. He founded the company North of Sixty K9, 15 years ago with a unique health and safety approach to crime detection. “We have an opportunity here, from this perspective, to have a huge effect on the way that things have been done here in the past, change them and make things better for the future,” he said. His company has been conducting the searches for Fort Good Hope and Délįnę. He uses “passive,” floppy-eared breeds like Labrador Retrievers to avoid intimidating people and told APTN News he can guarantee 100 per cent accuracy achieved through rigorous, daily training designed to eliminate false indications. Hicks said the program is a community-focused and educational alternative to traditional enforcement, positioning First Nations with the autonomy to decide how they wish to handle crime. Mark Hicks and his four-legged coworker train everyday so they can catch and prevent substances and dangerous goods from being boarded onto planes bound for remote communities in the N.W.T. Photo: Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs/APTN. When his team finds dangerous goods and substances, they inform the airlines, who then decide what to do with the substances, often involving the community. This keeps the process in the “health and safety” realm and avoids prosecution,” he said. “Airlines have their own signage up and their own notices to people. And they’re completely within their rights under the Transportation Act to take any dangerous goods or substances out of freight and destroy it if they wish,” Hicks said. “Our job is education and to stop the flow. Not persecution [or] prosecution.” As drug traffickers constantly change concealment and transportation methods, Hicks said his company anticipates these changes and stays ahead of them, and has contingency plans for various smuggling routes. “That’s happened locally here. We’re dealing with one air service provider where I instituted certain things to take over in case they changed their methods. They changed them within 48 hours, and we caught it somewhere else. Then they changed it again, and we caught it somewhere else,” Hicks said. The remote, 500-person Dene and Métis community of Radįlı̨kœ́ (Fort Good Hope), has seen multiple seizures of drug and alcohol shipments. In May 2025, the Dene Nation held a two-day forum in Yellowknife to discuss the urgent need for community protection and security. NWT RCMP Supt. Chris Romanchych, spoke to the assembly and acknowledged their concerns. “We know drugs and alcohol are coming in a couple different ways. We know they are coming in by vehicles when appropriate or when available, and they are also coming in through our airlines. We have challenges with security at some of our smaller airports,” Romanchych said. The RCMP are bound by legal and constitutional constraints, Hicks alluded to, which can make tackling the issue tricky, as they are required to have reasonable grounds before conducting a search without a warrant. “The RCMP are always saying they need evidence,” said Grandjambe, who expressed concern over substances coming into the community when the winter road opens to Fort Good Hope. “I met with the Minister of Justice and I asked him what the plans are for the winter road because I never see them, even though they have highway patrol.” The Délįnę Got’įnę Government (DGG) has also partnered with North of Sixty K9, with searches conducted since Nov. 10 in an effort to keep their roughly 640-person community safe. Chief Danny Gaudet was away on duty travel and was unable to speak with APTN directly,  however, in a media release, he stated that the measures are “from a health and safety perspective,” and that the DGG “recognizes the magnitude of alcohol and drug challenges in the community of Délįnę.” “Searches will be conducted on all luggage at the North-Wright Air terminal in Yellowknife for all inbound flights to Délįnę,” the DGG stated. Along with searches conducted on all luggage at the North-Wright Air terminal in Yellowknife for inbound flights to Délįnę, freight searches are also conducted for Summit Airways, Buffalo Air, and Canadian North flights. In an email statement, North-Wright Airways Operations Manager Kyle Newhook told APTN News the company supports the efforts of Deline and Fort Good Hope in this initiative but was “unable to comment on the specific methodology or the parties involved.” Continue Reading