A nose for narcotics

Baxo, Creston Police Department’s newest K9, has been very busy “at play” lately.

Early Sunday morning, Baxo was deployed during a traffic stop and his finds led to the discovery of cocaine, methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, digital scales, a large amount of cash, drug packaging materials and a loaded handgun, all of which were in possession of a convicted felon. K-9s have been an invaluable resource for Creston Police as they continue to combat Creston’s ongoing drug problem.

Baxo, a 6-year-old German Shepherd, joined the department after the department’s former K-9 Jax went into early retirement after less than a year on the force.

“Jax developed some problems, car sickness,” said Sergeant Shannon Arends. “We couldn’t get it worked out. In his last assessment it was going to take several months of him being down and the worry is that the chance of success wasn’t that great because you’re not transporting him to work and keeping his skills up.”

As Jax began to develop issues, Arends recommended Officer Cory Dorsey onboard his K-9, Baxo, who worked with Dorsey when he was an Adams County deputy.

“Because he was already acclimated with the dog, had a dog in good standings, it was cheaper for the community to rotate Baxo in than it was for me to buy another dog and start over,” said Arends.

Baxo

Dorsey acquired Baxo in 2018, and when he joined Creston Police in 2020, Baxo joined, too.

Baxo was born in Slovakia in Central Europe and sourced by I-80 K-9 in Atlantic, which helps law enforcement source police dogs.

“Over there, they train these as sport dogs,” said Dorsey. “Their sport dog is the NFL to us. It’s all competition, so they want the best of the best.”

Dorsey said I-80 K-9 examines a dog’s blood lines and photographs, and watches videos, to assess a dog’s capabilities for the type of work its being sought for. Baxo is certified in narcotics and article recovery.

“Narcotic wise, he’s certified to detect methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy,” said Dorsey.

Part of Baxo’s training at I-80 K-9 involved learning how to target odors, which is done through “imprinting” the target odor in the dog.

“Essentially, the odor of each drug is imprinted in the dog,” said Dorsey. “Through continual training he develops proficiency in those odors. Once those odors are imprinted in their brain it’s something that sticks with them.”

During the imprinting phase of training, the goal is to build value for the dog to target the odor, which starts as early as 5 weeks old. For Baxo and other dogs who do this type of work, the discovery of target odors is so rewarding, they will alert their handler and stay with the odor until a reward is received. Rewards can include food, toys and affection.

“A narcotic dog is fun to work with, because when I get him out on a deployment searching for narcotics, for him it’s playtime. It’s a fun time for him, he’s looking for his toy,” said Dorsey. “He associates the odor of those drugs with his reward.”

A normal deployment involves Dorsey helping Baxo acclimate to his surroundings before giving him directions.

“I let him familiarize with the area for a few seconds, show him his reward and then I give him the command to ‘Find gift,’” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said many times Baxo takes off and begins work on his own.

“Being almost 7 years old, it’s something where he’s really proficient,” said Dorsey. “He’s a really good narcotics dog and he loves to work, so when he gets out on a traffic stop, he knows what’s going on.”

One thing Dorsey learned during his time developing as a handler is that police dogs alert to drug odors on a molecular level, which doesn’t necessarily mean a product is present.

While training with an Adams County deputy, Dorsey said the deputy had a small paper clip that was kept with his dog’s training aids, which includes a small amount of narcotics.

“That single paper clip, all it would hold is molecules of the drug odor,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey recalled the deputy hiding the paper clip by hanging it on a chain link fence before asking Dorsey to run Baxo along the fence line.

“I’m thinking, there is no way Baxo is going to find a paper clip hanging on a chain link fence,” he said. “But he starts working down the fence and all of a sudden he stops and puts his nose on the ground. I didn’t know where the paper clip was, but I knew the way he responds to those odors, I knew he’s in drug odor right now, so my mind was already blown away.”

That behavioral change is how Baxo indicates to Dorsey he’s discovered the odor of drugs, and scratching or digging alerts Dorsey when its been located. Baxo is a great asset to the department.

He’s very busy,” said Dorsey.

New strategy

With the change in Creston’s K-9 handlers, Arends has been charged by Chief Paul Ver Meer to oversee Creston’s narcotics program, creating a strategy to better utilize the departments lean staff, funding and resources.

“My goal is to take individual officers and assess their strengths in certain areas and build that and work together as a team,” said Arends. “You have some officers that are good in some areas and not so good in other areas, whereas other officers are good in those areas. So it’s about structuring people and putting them in the right place.”

Arends said the drug problem in Creston is “skyrocketing.”

“It’s getting worse all the time,” he said. “Crystal meth is exploding everywhere. Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine – all those drugs are right there with it. We basically have every thing in Creston.”

Arends said the sheer volume of drugs being moved in to Creston from Mexico is somewhat unbelievable, but law enforcement’s ability to counteract the issue is more impressive to him.

“What our plan is to strategically attack the drug problem instead of just reacting to it,” he said. “Strategically attack it and try to find out through information who is distributing the drugs, where it’s taking place, when it’s taking place, how it’s taking place and working with bigger agencies like ATF, DNE, DEA, those types of agencies that give us cooperation and help us work some areas we have problems with logistics, where they come in to Creston and leave. We give them information and they give us information.”

As Arends works on overall strategy to identify bigger players in Creston’s drug distribution, information collected during Dorsey and Baxo’s work also helps build evidence for investigations. The public can help too. Report suspicious activity to law enforcement by calling the Union County Law Enforcement Center at 641-782-8402. Follow Baxo’s work on the Creston Police K-9 Facebook page.