Wyoming Highway Patrol lost a former narcotics detection K-9 on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. Basil passed away at home surrounded by his family. Basil’s career began with the Wyoming Highway Patrol in the fall, of 2008 and assigned to Trooper Barry Tippy. Basil worked in the Green River and Rock Springs areas until his retirement in September 2017.
Basil had a highly successful career. He helped remove thousands of dollars of illegal narcotics and U.S. currency from the sale of those illicit substances .
Over his career, Basil was deployed 473 times and sniffed out approximately 720.4 pounds of marijuana; 122 grams of cocaine; 470.8 grams of methamphetamine; 93 grams of heroin and 180.5 grams of other illegal narcotics. One of Basil’s most notable seizures was 187 pounds of high-grade marijuana concealed in a compartment, which was disguised to look like a banded stack of plywood.
Basil was also responsible for finding 12 guns that were used in the commission of drug trafficking and helped confiscate $401,985 in currency. One of Basil’s largest seizures was $287,000, which was seized from a known interstate illegal narcotics trafficker.
Basil also helped to make his community a safer place by executing search warrants with Department of Criminal Investigations, Green River Police Department and the Rock Springs Police Department. Basil would conduct a search of a residence, and during the search, Basil alerted to a sealed gun safe. Green River Fire Department was called in to assist in opening the safe, and a significant amount of methamphetamine was located within the safe.
Basil helped to make schools in Wyoming a safe and drug-free learning environment by conducting numerous sweeps of schools and parking lots throughout the state.
Basil was well known in his community. He performed demonstrations for civic groups and school classes in both Green River and Rock Springs. Basil loved to participate in the Solvay Minerals Kids Day, which is an annual event sponsored by Solvay Minerals, in Green River.
Ironically, Basil passed on Sweetwater County School District No. 2’s annual Children’s Wellness Day. Basil loved this event and the chance to show off his skills to the children in attendance. There was a lot of wet (drool) tennis ball tossing at these events.
“I had the honor of being Basil’s handler. Basil taught me many life lessons. He taught me the meaning of the words; compassion, understanding, passion, humility, patience and lastly love.,” Trooper Tippy said.
“Basil helped me through dark days in both my personal and professional life. He listened to rants and never told a single soul My partner was there when I needed someone to hug and he never judged me for all of my shortcomings. Basil was my K-9, partner and most importantly a best friend.”
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