Meet Toby at www.tobyatglobal.com

Warwickshire Police today (Monday July 9) launches a new website as part of a media campaign for visitors to this year's Global Gathering.

Featuring Toby, the force's passive drugs dog, the website site, www.tobyatglobal.com/web carries a strong message warning of the consequences of taking drugs into the festival site at Long marston and offering an amnesty in the form of bins at the gate where illegal substances can be left without fear of further police action.

Toby will be working at the three day gathering (Friday July 27 - Sunday July 29) with 11 of his "mates" from other forces. As well as greeting visitors as they arrive the dogs will be patrolling the site during the three day event.

Last year the highly trained dogs identified 350 people who were cautioned for possession of illegal substances and 13 who were charged with offences relating to the supply of controlled drugs and appeared at Court. A number of them are still currently serving custodial sentences.

Toby is a four year old yellow Labrador cross who joined Warwickshire Police two years ago, working with handler PC Mark Young.

Their specialist skills are much in demand and they travel widely to work at big festivals, including Glastonbury, as well as on major crime investigations where drugs might be involved.

Toby has also worked successfully with British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police on major robbery initiatives. Closer to home he has worked with local policing teams, helping to protect the community by sniffing out drugs on the streets of Warwickshire.

PC Young said: "Toby's raring to go at the moment, he's absolutely at the top of his game.

"If he smells drugs nothing will deter him, which is good for us but not for the person with the drugs."

Inspector Dave Patterson, said: "Once again we will have a robust strategy in place to deter people from bringing drugs into Global Gathering and the dogs will play an important role in this.