The OPERA experiment, designed to perform the first observation of $ u_mu rightarrow u_tau$ oscillations in appearance mode through the detection of the $tau$ leptons produced in $ u_tau$ charged current interactions, has collected data from 2008 to 2012. In the present paper, the procedure developed to detect $tau$ particle decays, occurring over distances of the order of 1 mm from the neutrino interaction point, is described in detail. The results of its application to the search for charmed hadrons are then presented as a validation of the methods for $ u_tau$ appearance detection.
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