Sioux Falls suburb triples hard drug seizures with help of K-9

Tea Police Department's annual report shows officers ensnared more meth, cocaine, heroin and mushrooms since enlisting drug dog

Suni, a female Belgian Malinois from Romania, is pictured alongside Officer Taylor White, of the Tea Police Department. (Contributed/Tea Police Department)

TEA — Seizures of certain hard drugs more than tripled in Tea in 2024 after the department added a K-9 to its team.

According to the Tea Police Department’s annual report, released Monday, March 17, law enforcement in the Sioux Falls suburb made 75 seizures of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and psilocybin mushrooms in 2024.

That’s more than triple the 24 seizures the department made in 2023, and is credited, in part, to the department’s use of a K-9.

In April 2024, the Tea Police Department added Suni, a female Belgian Malinois from Romania, to its patrols. Suni was obtained by the department following a 2018 agreement between the Tea City Council and the Kasseburg Canine Training Center in Alabama.

Paired with Officer Taylor White, it took just two shifts for Suni to make her first bust, which led to an arrest.

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