With the help of so-called "cash dogs," the Federal Police managed to seize €10 million in hidden cash last year, double the amount uncovered during actions in 2021.
Drug dealers and lords in Belgium are finding increasingly innovative ways to conceal their products and the money they earn through their trade. In the ongoing fight to tackle organised crime, the Federal Police have started deploying dogs that can smell banknotes in addition to drugs, making it easier for the police to intercept hidden sums of criminal money. Last year, this resulted in a record amount of cash being seized.
"Drug criminals make fortunes from their illegal practices. We also know that criminals are increasingly inventive in hiding drugs and cash. Yet no one can hide anything from a well-trained police dog," Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said, adding that to break the earning model of these gangs, the state is going to increase efforts to "seize their pennies."
Word goes round
Since 2021, every drug dog must also be able to detect the smell of banknotes; Belgium counts a total of 33 "cash dogs". Since the basic components of notes are always the same, the dogs can also detect foreign notes.
The doubling in the amount seized can mainly be explained by the Sky-ECC files, which lead to an increase in the number of searches, and therefore also the number of finds, and the fact that police forces in Belgium are more aware that canine support in interventions and operations can help detect hidden sums of cash.
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“We once found €800,000 in one day last year,” said Rony Vandaele, Federal Police's director of dog support. “And of course that goes around quickly among colleagues, so we get even more requests.”
The biggest finds in 2022 were in the province of Antwerp (€3.9 million), followed by Brussels (€2 million) and Liège (€1.2 million). Some successes have already been recorded this year too: just this week, €185,000 in a hidden compartment of a car, which is now forbidden by law.
