PRISON WORKER NABBED IN ALLEGED DRUG PLOT

Police Say Pot Was For Inmate With Gang Ties

An employee at Stony Mountain Institution has been charged with drug
offences and two others were fired after a man allegedly tried to deliver
illegal drugs to an imprisoned associate of the Hells Angels gang.

Robert Reed, 48, of Matlock, was arrested by RCMP in the prison parking lot
shortly after he arrived for work Tuesday morning, Sgt. Gerry Thomas of
Stonewall RCMP said.

Officers seized 60 grams of marijuana and 238 tabs of valium, which
investigators believe was destined for a member of the Zig Zag Crew, a
Hells Angels puppet club based in Winnipeg, Thomas said.

Police later raided a home in north Winnipeg where more drugs were seized
from an associate of the club, he said.

And two food services workers were fired after being implicated in the
plot, Thomas said. He did not have any details about their alleged involvement.

The arrests cap a long investigation by the Correctional Service of Canada,
he said. Reed, a plumber and plumbing instructor at the prison, is charged
with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and possession
of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. He was released
from custody on a promise to appear in court April 18.

The employee's work provided him with opportunities to meet the prison's
inmates, Thomas said.

Chris McKay, Stony Mountain's operations manager, said Reed's co-workers
were upset and stunned by the arrest.

"This is not an everyday occurrence, so it's hard for us," McKay said.

She said she couldn't recall another employee being arrested for drug
offences, but a contract worker was charged last year with smuggling
narcotics into the prison.

"Every institution has ongoing concerns with drugs and we're no different,"
she said. "We have (inmates) here who were very active in the drug trade,
so we don't take this lightly." The prison, located a few kilometres north
of Winnipeg, uses drug dogs, special scanners and tipsters to halt the drug
flow, but it's difficult to close the pipeline completely, she said.

"Drugs come into the institution in a variety of ways," McKay said. "People
throw them over the fence to the inmates, they come in through the mail and
with visitors."