La Mesa drug dog retires at age 49

The La Mesa City Council unanimously authorized the retirement of police narcotic-detection dog Maximus "Max" on April 14. His partner, officer Derek Cox, was allowed to adopt the seven-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever.

During their six-year partnership, Cox and Max's efforts led to more than 156 narcotic-related felony arrests, according to a report in the agenda from police chief Walt Vasquez.

The K-9 team was requested and deployed within the city limits 345 times, and they helped surrounding agencies 51 times. The pair recovered more than 2700 grams of narcotics, which included cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, and ecstasy, according to the report.

Vasquez, who was sworn in on April 6, was formerly an assistant police chief for the San Diego Police Department. His duties included overseeing the canine unit, according to the City of La Mesa website.

Prior to the presentation of Vasquez's report, vice mayor Ruth Sterling told the council that outgoing police chief Ed Aceves "had "a walk-out" at 2 p.m. that day — a retirement tradition.

According to Vasquez's report, the police department acquired Max with a $4893.75 grant that the San Diego Police Foundation awarded on December 20, 2008. The grant went toward the purchase of the dog, a vehicle, and five weeks of training for Max and Cox.

The police department's quarterly operations reports highlighted some of Cox and Max's accomplishments. Then–police chief Alan Lanning wrote that the team was deployed 17 times during the last three months of 2010. They searched vehicles or residences; 12 searches were in La Mesa and 5 in other jurisdictions. Max gave 8 alerts that resulted in the seizure of 24.3 grams of methamphetamine, 540.2 grams of marijuana, 5 felony arrests and 3 misdemeanor arrests for drug-related charges.

During the first quarter of 2011, the K-9 team responded to 24 requests for drug-search assistance; all but 5 were in La Mesa. Nine calls "resulted in the discovery" of drugs or drug paraphernalia, the seizure of 29.4 grams of marijuana , 2.3 grams of heroin, and 5 arrests for "various drug-possession charges."

At the April 14 meeting, councilwoman Kristine Alessio read mayor Mark Arapostathis's commendation to the canine. Noting that Max's age was "49 in dog years,” Alessio said he "reached retirement age."

Cox thanked the council and said he had wanted to be a police canine handler since he was "a little kid."

In an interview after the presentation, Cox said he's worked for the police department for nine and a half years. Asked about Max's retirement plans, Cox said, "Just hanging out and not ride in a police car."

The April 14 agenda included the introduction of Max's successor, Bullet. However, Max was the only dog at the meeting. Neither Cox nor Sterling knew about status of the new dog.

I called police lieutenant Matt Nicholass on April 15 and left a message asking the spokesman if and when the department would get a new dog. I had not heard back by press time.