Dog Left in Charge of Town After Police Chief’s Resignation

Nikka

The police chief of the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn resigned on Wednesday, leaving the town with just one certified member on its police force: a drug-sniffer dog named Nikka.

According to a lawyer, Dave Romero, police chief Ernest ‘Chris’ Armijo decided to resign after news stories reported that he wasn’t allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background.

“He decided the attention was distracting,” Romer said on Wednesday.

State officials said Armijo couldn’t carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being accused of selling a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash.

Vaughn is a town described by US Homeland Security Investigations officials as an isolated region of the state popular with drug traffickers. Officials say the desolate roads in Guadalupe County make it hard for authorities to catch smugglers moving drugs from Mexico.