09/02/2022
Albanian police dogs are being trained to detect illegal cash smuggling at border controls
Albanian police dogs are being trained to detect illegal cash smuggling at border controls
The eleven-day training course took place at the facilities of the Albanian Police Canine Institute to teach Albanian police dogs to detect cash. The activity was organised within the framework of the EU4FOCAL project, the purpose of which is to help the Albanian authorities fight organised crime from the perspective of financial investigation. This project is funded by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).
This new training prepares them to work at border controls, detecting the illegal entry of money obtained by Albanian organised crime groups operating abroad. Police dogs have become an effective tool in the fight against money laundering in the country.
Eight dog handlers and six narcotic detection dogs took part in the course taught by specialists from the Spanish National Police. The instructor from the Canine Guide Section of the National Police Citizen Security Corps, Israel Moreno, explained: “we have shared our training system, which is based on guided learning, channelling the behavioural patterns of dogs by harnessing their instincts”. Two more training follow-up actions have been scheduled in a year.
After receiving the training, the dogs are ready for currency detection, enabling the same dogs to detect drugs and money, which improves the efficiency and sustainability of Albanian police canine units. For the National Police, the experience has been “fully satisfactory, because of the total availability of the attendees, who accepted the recommendations necessary to work with their dogs as effectively as possible”.
This format has made it possible for Albanian State Police handlers to provide more courses for handlers and dogs independently, while adhering to European Union standards.
