MUSSELSHELL COUNTY, Mont. - The Musselshell County Sheriff's Office is selling their K9 to a police department in Kansas due to changing marijuana laws in Montana.
As of January 1, 2021, adults 21 and over may possess and use up to one ounce of marijuana. Adult-use sales of marijuana will begin on January 1, 2022.
K9 Rico will leave for Kansas on Oct. 25. He has been with the Musselshell County Sheriff's Office since Nov. 2019.
Rico is trained to find four drugs: marijuana, meth, heroin and cocaine. The sheriff's office said it isn't possible to retrain him.
"It's going to be tough," Deputy Sheriff Travis Manning said. Rico lives and works with Manning.
"Right now, I've kind of gotten to that point where I teach something to Rico and he picks it up quick because we just jive well together," he added.
Manning said in the past month, Rico has helped find 9 pounds of marijuana, 2 ounces of meth, a firearm and a small amount of heroin. Manning said it would "absolutely not" have been possible to do that without Rico.
"We just click with each other and that's what has made this transition really tough," Manning said.
The Musselshell County Sheriff's Office is taking advantage of a $10,000 state grant to help replace Rico. They are combining the grant with the money made from selling Rico, plus some money from a private donor, to pay the $18,000 price tag for a new K9 and some additional training for Manning. They said a new police K9 will be coming sometime in May 2022.
