Service dog owned by military vet helps sniff out marijuana brick that washed ashore at Hanna Park

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A routine dog walk at Hanna Park turned into an unexpected drug discovery — and the nose behind it belonged to a service dog owned by a Jacksonville man.

In April, Tyler Gibson, who served in the Air Force, was walking his service dog “Zuma” along the Jacksonville beach when he stumbled upon a bale of marijuana that had washed ashore after high tide.

Gibson, who thought at first that the plastic was actually a Portuguese man o’ war, quickly contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Officers responded, collected what is commonly known as a “square grouper” — a slang term for bales of marijuana or other drugs that wash ashore from the ocean — and transported it to the property and evidence vault.