The Brunswick County North Carolina Sheriff’s Office lost one of its top dogs Saturday to cocaine poisoning from a package allegedly dropped by drug suspects.

K-9 Viper was memorialized by about 200 county employees and law enforcement officers Tuesday morning during services in front of the county courthouse. A Belgian Malinois and one of the office’s eight police dogs, Viper became the county’s first, and nation’s second, police dog killed in the line of duty this year.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Viper was tracking suspects in a drug investigation by the sheriff office’s Drug Enforcement Unit, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives and the Wilmington North Carolina Police Department.

Two men, Braulio Yanez Marin, 28, and Jamie Lopez Gonzalez, 32, were arrested on cocaine trafficking and conspiracy charges and taken to the Brunswick County jail where they remain on $1 million bond.

A six-year veteran, Viper, an aggressive-trained dog for special operations involving dangerous criminals and patrols, was off lead because he was chasing suspects in a 100-acre cornfield, according to an official with the U.S. Police Canine Association

But while running, Viper came across and bit a package containing a kilo, or 2.6 pounds of cocaine.

“That explains how the dog was poisoned,” said Russ Hess, the canine association’s executive director. “The package probably had sweat and the scent of the suspects all over it, and when the dog found it, he bit it and probably shook it.”

Viper retrieved the package and brought it to his handler, sheriff’s Deputy Jared Zeller. Zeller attempted first aid and took the dog to Four Paws emergency veterinarian hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“By the time the dog got back from across the field with that cocaine in his mouth, he was pretty much a goner,” said Lt. Tom Tolley, who once ran the office’s canine unit and who trained Viper six years ago.

Grieving the loss of a canine partner can be more intense than losing a human partner, Hess said.

“You spend more time with your K-9 partner than you do with your fellow officers, family or even your wife,” Hess said. “He listens to you vent. He knows what kind of mood you’re in when you get up each day. He doesn’t criticize, and he would not hesitate to lay down his life for you. This dog obviously did that for his handler. They are guardian angels to these officers.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files