Sniffing out crime: Marshall County welcomes new K9

Marshall County is welcoming a new four-legged employee to the police force.

His name is Irok – a Belgian Malinois all the way from Hungary. Irok is the only K9 on the force and he is replacing a K9 that retired a little over a year ago.

Irok works along his handler, Officer Andrew Wozniak, patrolling for the night shift.

“We patrol the county, respond to 911 calls, he’s not only an asset to our department but multiple counties around here,” Wozniak said.

In six months, Irok has already assisted in about 30 drug-related arrests. Marshall County Sheriff Matthew Hassel says he expects Irok to assist Wozniak in even more of those arrests in the future.

“Irok is a dual purpose dog, he can detect drugs and he can track. He is not trained to attack though,” Hassel said. “All that detecting drugs and tracking is fun for him, like he’s playing a game.”

Many of the arrests Irok has assisted with have been for possession of methamphetamine. Hassel says the availability of meth in Marshall County is a growing problem.

“Unfortunately, at the time were at here, it’s a normal number [of arrests],” Hassel said. “I really hope our task force can find the source of the meth and shut it down.”