A nose for justice: the FBI’s tech-sniffing dog
When the FBI needed proof in the 2016 Chelsea bombing case, it didn’t turn to a new algorithm or a breakthrough surveillance tool. It turned to a black Lab named Iris.
We met Iris and Calandra on a rare visit to the FBI’s Newark, New Jersey, headquarters. In his first interview since Iris retired, Calandra told us the full story of her 11-year career and how it changed the way the bureau investigates crimes. The Chelsea Market Bombing case, as it came to be known, was Iris’s first big break, though she went on to fly around the world taking on “nearly every big case you see on TV,” Calandra says.
The duo conducted 2,000 searches and discovered nearly 20,000 hidden thumb drives, microSD cards, laptops, cell phones, and the like. Along the way, Iris was electrocuted on a case Calandra cannot get into, and he had to administer Narcan to her twice when she was exposed to fentanyl.
Iris’s epic run ended in March 2025, when she was diagnosed with bone cancer and had to have her left front leg amputated. As a pioneer in the field of electronic-detection dogs, she inspired the FBI to establish a formal training program for tech-sniffing dogs. It’s the validation Calandra worked tirelessly to achieve, but now that it’s happened, he’s found himself at a crossroads. The bureau is training a puppy to replace Iris, another black Lab named Nyx, and when I meet Calandra in person, he is still deciding whether to take her on.
Iris survived electrocution, fentanyl exposure, and eventually bone cancer. In retirement, she drinks from an office water fountain while agents step out to admire “the famous Iris.” Technology may be getting smarter, but nothing beats a dog.