A Labrador retriever dog specially trained to detect memory devices was key to the investigation against a man accused of human trafficking in Mexico City.
The animal played a key role in an operation that included international activists and Mexican investigators, who were on the trail of Jason Maatman, a Dutchman with pending cases of child abuse and advocate of sex with children.
Maatman fled to Mexico where he believed he could go unnoticed and
there he continued his criminal activities
, according to The Associated Press news agency.
Upon learning of his whereabouts, Free Girl, an anti-trafficking organization based in the Netherlands, alerted the United States group Operation Underground Railroad, who joined the investigation with Mexican authorities.
This May 2022 photo provided by Operation Underground Railroad shows Hidu, a dog trained to detect electronic devices, in Indianapolis, Indiana.AP
“We were able to confirm that he was in Mexico and then talk to him (Maatman) in different chat rooms.
He told us: 'I'm in a very dangerous area, I don't want to give you my address.
I don't want him to come see me, but he can meet me at a gas station,'" said Matt Osborne, director of Operation Underground Railroad.
This is how the detectives from the Mexico City prosecutor's office arrested him when the offender arrived at a bus station near the meeting point on June 5, in his possession there was
a pistol and several doses of cocaine
but no child pornography material. , which are usually in digital format.
When they managed to find the house where he was hiding, the authorities asked for the collaboration of Hidu, who had graduated from a dog academy in Indiana that teaches canines to sniff out triphenylphosphine oxide or TPPO, the substance used for chemical coating used on electronic devices such as memory cards and USB flash drives.
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This substance has a characteristic odor that makes it easy for dogs to detect.
On the day of Hidu's first operation, the animal showed its prowess by identifying memories where the authorities would not have been able to reach.
“I understand there was a cell phone hidden in a laundry basket with totally stale clothes, you know, dirty clothes in a corner that no one went into,” Matt Osborne told The Associated Press. “The dog found that phone ".
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Hidu found more child pornography material attached to a wall below a painting, which was very difficult to identify.
Among the drives and devices the dog found were about 4
terabytes
of child sexual abuse material, prosecutors said.
"Everybody, every internet crime task force could use one of these (dogs)," said Hidu's trainer Todd Jordan, who has trained 83 dogs to detect these devices.
"I was raped and abused day after day."
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Mexico City Attorney General Ernestina Godoy thanked international organizations and Hidu for helping with the investigation.
"The message for those who attack a girl, a boy, an adolescent: in Mexico City there is no room for impunity," he said.
For now, Maatman is being held in a Mexico City prison, accused of human trafficking and possession of drugs and weapons.
With information from
The Associated Press