Dog To Combat Smuggling Cell Phones Into Prisons

TAMPA, Fla. -- A cell-phone sniffing dog will help combat the problem of phones being smuggled into state prisons.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger says Razor the dog is trained to smell cell phones and will report to duty in mid-November.

Plessinger says the phones that are smuggled into prisons help inmates with everything from dealing drugs to plotting escapes.

A law took effect Wednesday making it illegal to smuggle the phones. Before, a visitor might have been barred from visiting a prison if caught sneaking a cell phone to an inmate, and the inmate might have been placed in confinement. But it wasn't against the law.

Razor will be the first dog in Florida's prisons used exclusively to sniff for cell phones.