The Best Way to Find Loads of Cash? Try a Labrador Retriever

15 january 2013

A Labrador dog named Stella, with a nose well trained for big money was all over American TV news programs the other day as the latest weapon of the Italian finance police (Guardia di Finanza) for catching tax evaders.

 

Stella works at the Naples airport and her handlers  said that she’s helped uncover more than €3 million in illicit cash since the beginning of the year. Although she’s been cast for her 15 minutes of fame, the campaign in Italy actually covers other airports, train stations, ports and border crossings and employs many other dogs, mostly Labrador Retrievers. Apparently Labs are  better suited for cash sniffing because they’re calmer and more meticulous  than the German shepherds used to detect drugs.

Also, not insignificantly, because travelers seem to be more comfortable when sniffed by a Lab than a German Shepherd. Unsurprising, if you imagine yourself in the situation.

Since January, when the banknote-sniffing dogs were put to work,  the Italian authorities have seized €41 million, a 78% increase from 2011, mostly from Italians trying to avoid creeping austerity taxes.  According to recent reports, tax evasion in Italy costs its treasury over $340 billion a year. An Italian magazine reported this year’s seizures included  “570 kilograms of silver and 88 kilograms of gold ingots, including 50 kilograms found in a hidden compartment under the seat of a car driven by an Italian food store owner as he tried to cross into Switzerland at Ponte Chiasso.” Another shirker had rolled €200,000 in €500 notes into cigarettes.

But Italy is not the only European country using  sniffer dogs to ferret out cash. Britain’s long been using the canine patrol to fight mafia-controlled money laundering. In fact, many of the sniffer dogs used in Italy are British-trained (I’ll resist the urge to make a joke about accents, or cultural differences). And they include not only Labs but even cuter-looking dogs. The Guardian reported, for example, that “Within minutes of being deployed at Milan’s Malpensa airport, Robbie the Cocker Spaniel pointed his handler towards an Italian man who was found to have $40,000 in his suitcase.”

For the first time in the UK, as part of a program called Operation Payback, cash sniffer dogs are to be used to detect large amounts of money concealed on passengers or their bags on trains and platforms, one component of a major new crackdown on money laundering and other cash-based crimes. “Customs and Excise and police are joining forces in a bid to seize the vast proceeds of criminal activity being brought into London from other parts of the UK,” according to the Daily Mail. US authorities have been using these kinds of cash-sniffing dogs at airports for a long time, successfully.

British authorities report that the money is returned if the owner can provide a legitimate source. They also say they get to keep the cash 99% of the time.