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Owner of Detector Dogs Against Drugs & Explosives Gets 15 Months Added to Previous Prison Term

Russell L. Ebersole, owner of Detector Dogs Against Drugs & Explosives of Stephenson, VA, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge in Harrisonburg, VA, to serve 15 months in jail for instructing an employee to ship explosives by air and witness tampering. Ebersole pleaded guilty in August to telling an employee to ship by air a 1.4-pound box of explosives marked as kitchen supplies. The shipment violated DOT regulations and posed a serious risk to public safety. Ebersole also shipped a second box of undeclared explosives from Hagerstown, MD, to Seattle, WA, via UPS ground services. He told the individual who received the ground shipment to destroy the explosives and lie to Federal investigators.



Ebersole is already serving 72 months in jail for his conviction in an unrelated case of defrauding the Government. Ebersole contracted to provide explosives detection services at Federal agencies using dogs when the dogs were actually unable to distinguish explosives. Ten months of the 15-month jail term will be served consecutively with the 72-month term.