By Janice Morse - Cincinnati Enquirer

If you've got a prescription-drug stash, watch out for Kash.

Kash, a Belgian shepherd or Malinois, is the first police dog in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky to be specially trained to sniff for commonly abused prescription drugs - and he could be the first such dog in the nation, said John Burke, commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force.

Harold Bennett, president of the North American Police Work Dog Association, said, "This is the first time I've ever heard of it...I'm very, very curious about the application of this dog."

With the help of Hill's Compounding Pharmacy in Milford, Kash was trained on pure substances found in seven of the most commonly abused prescription drugs, including Xanax, Oxycontin and Vicodin, Burke said.

The dog will be made available to all police agencies in the region, Burke said. But Kash can be used only in specific situations where officers already have obtained a search warrant, been given consent to search an area or otherwise meet legal standards for a search, Burke said.

Such dogs have been used in private industry for some time, Burke said, such as business owners who ship a lot of pharmaceuticals and want to make sure that their employees aren't pocketing the drugs. The dogs also have use in schools, prisons and other places where consent to search doesn't apply.

Burke thinks these dogs could be a big help to police who are tackling a growing problem with illegal use and sales of prescription drugs.

"The same big money that (some people) were making off of cocaine and other drugs, they're making off of pharmaceuticals," Burke said.

Kash got his name largely because he also is trained to sniff for U.S. currency. He joins the Warren County Sheriff's Office along with a second dog named Tango in a nod to the detective duo in the 1989 movie, "Tango & Cash," although they'll be riding separately.

Tango is an 17-month-old black German shepherd who is trained to track and chase suspects, as well as sniff for illegal drugs. The dog has been certified through Bennett's group, Burke said.

Tango will ride with his handler, Deputy Kelly Hammonds.

Kash will ride with his handler, Deputy Brian Lewis, and another dog that has been in service for about three years, a narcotics dog aptly named Kilo. During his three years of service, he has sniffed out more than 800 pounds of marijuana, leading officers to seize a total of $650,000 in cash, Lewis said.

The cost for each dog ranges from $5,000 to $8,000 - but all three of these dogs were bought at no cost to Warren County taxpayers, Burke said. The dogs were purchased with funds from drug cases or from a grant from the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators.