It’s been a while since I last worked in the wonderful world of wholesale cash, but only recently I heard  more about sniffer dogs being used to find cash in the hope to catch out criminals and, in particular, money launderers. One of my friends encountered one at London’s CityAirporta few months ago and recently it was announced that a sniffer dog particularly trained to intercept money is active on trains and stations in Holland. It’s an interesting one in particular since money laundering and other criminal activities have always been highly reliant on cash. What’s curious though is that even all those many moons ago when I worked in the cash business, amounts up to the equivalent of 200,000 EUR would be carried in cash from one country to another. Straight through customs in the trouser pockets of someone’s tracksuit without anyone noticing. 

It makes me wonder why it’s only now that the sniffer dogs are being deployed. Did someone perhaps finally wake up?

Dr Natalie Schoon, CFA