Donnacona’t ready to counter drones

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Two individuals have attempted to introduce narcotics into the prison Donnacona, using a drone.

Nicolas Saillant

Monday, 10 July, 2017 00:01

UPDATE
Monday, 10 July, 2017 00:01

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The arrest two weeks ago of two individuals who tried to introduce drugs, with the help of a drone to the prison Donnacona “worried,” the correctional officers, who believe that canadian prisons are ” vulnerable “.

The 19 June last, the Sûreté du Québec stopped at the end of an investigation, two individuals who were preparing to make a delivery of narcotics to the penitentiary in Donnacona. Sign of the times, the two alleged traffickers were still about two kilometers from their target, in the parking lot of the Tim Hortons of the municipality.

In their vehicle, drugs, tobacco, a few cell phones and a drone were seized. Marc-André Trudel, 30 years, of Montreal has been arrested to face charges of drug trafficking. His sidekick has been released on a promise to appear.

Delivery to cells

However, according to the information obtained by The Newspaper, the objective of the traffickers would have been delivered directly to the window of one of the cells of the penitentiary. A new technique that seems to be increasingly tempted by the traffickers.

Between July 2013 and December 2016, 20 incidents involving drones have been listed in the facilities in Quebec, according to correctional Service of Canada. Figures put in doubt by Frédéric Lebeau, the chairman of the trade union section of quebec federal correctional officers. “It’s a lot more, it is sure that it is much more than that. I find it low, I’m really surprised, ” he says.

It must be said that such an operation is very lucrative to the inside of the walls. The goods transported by drone content in a package as big as a soccer ball can be worth up to $ 10,000 on the black market and prisons.

Always according to our sources, a massive entry of narcotic drone, have also been held there about a month and a half in Donnacona, that would have put the authorities on the alert. The decision to reduce the activities in the course has even been taken to limit the field of action of the importers.

Agents concerned

This new threat, accompanied by the inaction of the correctional Service of Canada in the area of “concern” the correctional officers at the federal level. “We think that the government is in arrears in the folder. It’s moving at a snail’s pace “, was concerned about Mr. Lebeau.

He said that a pilot project has been launched with the establishment of Drummondville to study three technologies of decommissioning of drones around prisons, but the results are slow in coming. “It is always a question of cost, in the end. I believe that the correctional Service has the will, but it is a lack of budget, ” said Mr. Lebeau.

Incidents involving the drones in the institutions of the Quebec

• Cowansville 9
• Drummondville 5
• Donnacona 4
• Federal center
• Training at Laval 2

In the detention centres of Quebec :

• 90 observations in 2016
• 15 in 2015