Today on some cable channel there was a program about smuggling money in and out of the USA. The films were made in Miami and New York airports with a couple clips in Dallas and LA.
The whole documentary was very well done and professional. I did not see the first 10 minutes or so, I was late to the show.
So what story did it tell? Well these dogs did not sniff dope, bombs, guns, or meat. The Customs guys said if you want to find a criminal all you need to do is follow the money! These dogs were trained to smell American Money! They work in the aircraft jet way sniffing the passengers as they were boarding the plane. They sniff here and there as the people walk by and follow the ones who have too much cash.
Most of the video had people open a carry on bag and they had plenty of cash in side. No big impressive feat from what I have seen before. By the way the limit of unclaimed cash you can have leaving or coming into the USA is 10,000 US dollars. That much money in 100 dollar bills is about 1/4" thick and easily fits into a legal size envelope.
Several of the people had cash in one gallon zip lock bags, inside a hardsided brief cases. Not a single one got past the dogs. Many had the money wrapped in plastic cling sandwich wrap. One guy had it inside his lead lined film bag. That one had the Customs guys howling with laughter, as if the lead lined bag was a scent deterent!
Another guy had a big stack of cash in his front pocket and made a rude comment about the dog violating him. However the big one that was really impressive to me was the guy with the carbon lined Camo jacket in his carry on with the money (50,000 bucks) contained inside the folded up jacket. That was inside a soft sided zip shut wheeled carry on case.
Finally they had the dog on a few practice runs with money that had been sprayed with diesel fuel and put in a plastic bag and then placed inside a suitcase that was then placed in a stack of about 30 passanger suitcases. The dog ran past all of them and on his second loop around he stopped at the case and sat down. He did not indicate which suit case it was in the stack but sat right in front of the right one. According to the Customs guys and the airport security that's why you cannot lock your luggage any longer in checked baggage. The customs guys just pulled the 4 close to where he sat and seperated them. Then the dog ran them again sitting right in front of the correct one. If he would have been unable to identify one in particular they would have opened and searched all 4.
The really interesting this was how these Customs guys take dogs from the pound and train them. None were pure bred special breeds. Everyone was a mutant dog of mixed breed. The customs guys were actually quite boastful about the dogs they use claiming nothing is going to get by his dogs nose. They had lots of stories about people hiding money the dogs found.
One was very interesting. A black girl was boarding a flight for Jamaca. She had a wheeled carry on and the dog just locked on her and the guys knew they had a smuggler by the dogs reaction. She said she had only a few hundred dollars and showed them. They could not find the money and called a female to pat her down. Still no money. They began questioning her and it turned out she was there after leaving her job as a bank employee where she had to count money for the last several hours while wearing the same clothes she had on at the airport. The dog smelled the residue of money on her clothing, skin and hair. That's pretty impressive!
Give game the respect it's due and stay down wind. You cannot fool an animals nose with anything currently produced on this planet!
