GUARD SUSPECTED OF TRAFFICKING DRUGS IN JAIL

Vancouver Police Investigate Officer Who Has Been Arrested But Not Charged

A Vancouver jail guard has been arrested for suspected drug trafficking
inside the city jail, a corrections official confirmed Thursday.

The correctional officer was arrested Tuesday in the parking lot of the
Vancouver Pre-Trial Services Centre, which houses accused criminals
awaiting trial and people arrested on immigration warrants facing deportation.

"It's an extremely rare occurrence," Wayne Willows, a spokesman for the
B.C. corrections branch in Victoria, said of the arrest.

Willows said the officer was an auxiliary security officer -- a
probationary guard who had not yet become a permanent employee of the
attorney-general's ministry, which oversees the corrections branch.

The officer is under investigation for possession of illegal drugs for the
purpose of trafficking, Willows said. He said he didn't know the amount or
what kind of drugs were seized, if any. The officer has been suspended from
work.

Vancouver police Constable Anne Drennan said Thursday there is an active
investigation into the matter at the pre-trial centre.

She noted the officer was arrested but has not been charged. She said she
could not comment when asked if police seized any drugs, noting the
investigation is continuing.

Officials have been concerned for some time about the amount of illegal
drugs making their way into B.C.'s jails and prisons.

A year ago, there was a serious attempt to deal with problem, Willows said,
noting there are now ion scanners to detect any amount of illegal drugs
being brought in by visitors. He also noted that regulations were changed,
allowing urine analysis of prisoners.

In 1997, there was an investigation into drug smuggling by guards at the
Pacific Regional Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge, the provincial jail
that replaced Oakalla.

One guard involved in the internal investigation claimed he faced a
retribution campaign that involved death threats and having his tires slashed.

Two guards were fired for allegedly dealing drugs at PRCC. But Ron Leskun,
who headed a team of three officers doing the internal investigation,
charged that the government shut down the investigation after pressure from
the government employees' union.

Leskun suggested guards were making hundreds of thousands of dollars
selling cocaine and heroin inside PRCC, which houses prisoners serving two
years or less.

Last year, a guard at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre was charged
with drug trafficking, but officials believed he was not selling inside the
jail.

In September 1999, a Saskatchewan Penitentiary guard was arrested with 75
grams of hash and 2.5 grams of cocaine in his car. He was charged with
conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the federal prison.

In the past, a common method of smuggling drugs into prisons and jails was
throwing a tennis ball containing drugs from the outside into outdoor
prison exercise yards, where convicts are allowed to get fresh air.

Officials also suspected drugs were being smuggled in body cavities of
visitors, who would pass the drugs during handshakes and hugs during
visits. For that reason, the Vancouver Pre-trial Centre has banned physical
contact between prisoners and visitors.

At federal prisons, convicts are given bleach to sterilize needles, which
are used to inject drugs, but there is no needle exchange program. Many
prisoners have become infected with hepatitis, but bleach on needles does
prevent the spread of HIV infection.