The Mounties are Canada's Swiss-army knife of elite law enforcement

Shaun Best/Reuters

In honor of Canada Day, July 1, we decided to take a look at one of the most storied law enforcement units in the world — the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, better known as "The Mounties."

Though widely known for the image of the flat brimmed trooper in the red coat on horseback, the Mounties are actually a nation-wide elite law enforcement unit, comparable to the American FBI.

They tackle a broad array of operations from anti-gangs to counter-terrorism.

This post was originally written by Brian Adam Jones.

The Mounties were officially formed in 1920, but their history stretches back much farther.

The Mounties were formed by merger of the Northwest Mounted Police and the Dominion Police.

Today, their mission includes fighting organized crime, terrorism, drugs, white collar crimes and "offenses that threaten the integrity of Canada’s national borders."