BOW AND ARROW DELIVER DRUGS TO ROBBIN' HOODS

During the 13 years he has worked at the federal penitentiary in Donnacona,
Carl Pelletier has seen some highly imaginative techniques used to smuggle
drugs to inmates.

But even he was impressed by the recent discovery that someone was shooting
drug-filled arrows into the prison's recreational yard from a nearby forest.

"It's probably happened before somewhere, because these methods tend to get
exported around," said Pelletier, deputy director of the maximum-security
facility 30 kilometres west of Quebec City.

"But it's a new one for us, and I've never heard of anything like in any
other (Canadian) prison."

Pelletier said prison officials first heard about the technique last year
from an informant. However, searches of the woods that surround the prison
failed to turn up any evidence.

Then on Sept. 13, guards found two crossbow-fired arrows embedded in the
ground inside the prisoners' recreational yard on the northwest side of the
facility.

Several weeks later, on Oct. 3 and 4, prison vehicles patrolling the
perimeter road outside the barbed-wire fences found four more arrows and a
tennis ball that had apparently fallen short of their mark.

Inside the arrows and the tennis ball were a total of 25 grams of heroin, 89
grams of marijuana, 29 grams of hashish and 115 pills containing a morphine
derivative.

The drugs were packed into straws that were crammed into the hollow shafts
of the arrows.

No arrests have been made in the case, which is being investigated by the
Surete du Quebec. However, nine of the 325 prisoners held in Donnacona are
suspects. They could face criminal charges or transfers to other prisons.

"We don't want drugs here because they increase the tension - make this a
more dangerous place than it already is," Pelletier said.

Because drug prices inside prison are several times higher than those on the
street (Pelletier says heroin, for example, sells for $1,000 per gram in the
prison, while a gram of hash or pot fetches $55), the estimated value of the
smuggled drugs was $40,000.

That amount equaled the value of all the drugs seized by prison officials
during routine cell-block searches from April to September.

Donnacona officials say they'll add lighting and motion detectors, and
reduce the prisoners' recreational yard by two-thirds.

"That's part of the consequences (of the arrow shooting)," Pelletier said.

"We're not running a day care here."