Meet Floki

The Guardia Civil in Alicante has been joined by a new member, aged just 3, but with double the number of legs of the usual officer recruits.

Meet Floki, a mixed German and Belgian Shepherd, who has begun patrolling the area accompanied by a human handler, Antonio.

Floki is one of the many dogs born and raised in El Pardo, the Guardia Civil´s own facilities. From the moment of his birth, Floki´s destiny was already mapped out, to serve as an agent of the Guardia Civil, assuming the young pup worked hard and managed to pass the selection tests of course.

Although there are many roles that dogs like Floki fulfil within the corps, Floki´s main role will be in detection, with specialist training in methods for sniffing out money.

Covering both the Valencia and Murcia regions, and capable of moving to other areas across the country, Floki will be based at Alicante-Elche airport.

Among his daily services, Floki will be called on to search homes and businesses where crime is suspected of having been committed, common requests being for cases of money laundering, for example.

When not involved in crime detection, Floki will be on duty at border points, including Alicante-Elche airport, checking travellers who may be carrying larger amounts of cash than permitted, or other items.

As well as active duties, Floki has a daily routine of exercises, including games where money detection is also part of the play.

No doubt, at some point, Floki will also meet with his 4-legged companions in the Alicante province, which is protected by another 4 dogs who detect drugs, 4 who search for explosives and 1 specialising in tobacco.