Pubdate: Thu, 27 Apr 2006
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Paul Turenne, Police Reporter

DOGS HAVE THE DOPE

Seize More Than $40K In Drugs

Drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers at the Stony  Mountain and
Rockwood Institutions have seized  marijuana and cocaine worth more
than $40,000 behind  prison walls in recent weeks, proving they were
likely  paying attention at a recent conference on drug  detection.

The two federal prisons, located side-by-side about 13  kilometres
north of Winnipeg, hosted a conference for  institutional drug search
teams last month, and in the  weeks following the confab the local
teams have made  five separate seizures and turned two suspects over
to  the RCMP.

"It was a particularly busy time," said Christer  McLauchlan, who
teams up with a black Lab named Samson  to search for drugs at Stony
Mountain. "We were able to  take the skills we learned at that
conference and apply  them to real life. It definitely had an impact."

BUSTED VISITORS

Together with Rockwood's team, McLauchlan and Samson  have busted two
visitors trying to smuggle drugs into  the prison, as well as finding
more than 300 grams of  pot and 24 grams of cocaine on prison grounds,
likely  the results of "drug throws" that hadn't been picked up  yet.

Stonewall RCMP have charged a 20-year-old man with two  counts of drug
trafficking as a direct result of the  team's activities.

A spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada  said about 80%
of federal inmates come to prison with  some kind of substance abuse
problem, and prison  officials recognize that drugs do make it inside,
  although efforts are made to stop both supply and  demand.

McLauchlan said drugs inside a prison are worth about  10 times what
they fetch on the street.
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