

A man traveling from Qatar to Washington Dulles International Airport declared to U.S. officials that he had $8000. But as he left the inspection area, Nicky the sniffer dog said (in dog vernacular):

His pants are on fire and his nose is growing.

When officials inspected the man’s luggage they found an envelope with $24,789 inside.

Although there is no limit to the amount of cash people can import or export into the U.S., they are required to declare amounts above $10,000 to customs officials. If they try to smuggle larger sums in, they run the risk of having the money seized and facing criminal charges.

In the case above the man was forced to forfeit the money, but there was not enough evidence to charge him with any crime.

In an era of universal credit cards and money transfers, it is hard to imagine that a traveler would have a legitimate reason for carrying many thousands in cash. If the person can explain where the large sums of currency came from and how they intend to use it—without implicating themselves in tax evasion, money laundering, or drug dealing—they might be allowed to keep it.

Less than 2% can explain.

Shocker.

So who are these money sniffing dogs?

Most of them are Labradors because the breed is less threatening to the public than German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, the breeds most commonly used in military and law enforcement.

As hunting dogs, Labs have a strong drive to sniff out prey, whether a rabbit or drugs or money.

For the first year of their lives the dogs are socialized and allowed to be puppies. The ones who pass tests of health, robustness and temperament are purchased and given 18 months of training.

Training dogs to sniff out cash is more complex than training for drug or other kinds of searches because of the abundance of odors on money.

Dogs are trained to detect the particular ink used in printing the bills. The exact composition of legal tender, including the formula for ink, is a closely guarded secret. The dogs are trained to sniff out bundles containing hundreds or more of individual notes. No one is interested in the small number of bills most people carry around.

U.S. currency is printed on cotton/linen fiber instead of wood fiber used for paper. Money will have the scent of the many people who have handled it.

And people who seem to know what they are talking about tell us that much of the money we carry around with us has the odor of cocaine from some all-cash drug deal in the past.

Money sniffing dogs are used not just in airports, but in train stations and road stops in the US and many European countries. During the past few years they have sniffed out millions in currency taking a big bite out of many criminal operations.