Ontario prisons seeing more drone drops

Criminals often flying contraband right to inmates' windows, guards union says

- PETER EDWARDS

Officials say activity drone was reported on 156 days at Collins Bay Penitentiary in Kingston, Ont., last year. During that time, 354 weapons, 241 cellphones, several pounds of drugs and $276,000 were seized by guards.

Criminals are making big money airlifting drugs, cellphones and weapons into prisons with high-end drones, often flying them right up to an inmate’s cell window, the guards’ union says.

“They can fly them right to a given window and drop them off,” Jeffrey Wilkins, national president of Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said in an interview. “They reach out and grab.”

“They can GPS locate things,” Wilkins added. “This is big business for inmates … This has to do a lot with the drug trade.”

Drones routinely drop off drugs, weapons, tobacco, cellphones and cellphone equipment like chargers onto prison grounds, he said.

Over the past month, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) reported seizing roughly $441,900 worth of contraband such as tobacco, marijuana, hashish and shatter (cannabis concentrate), as well as cellphones and cellphone accessories at the Collins Bay and Joyceville institutions, two of its Kingston, Ont.,-area facilities.