$500,000 worth of drugs seized from prison yard in Bowden

Half-a-million dollars worth of drugs has been seized by staff from the yard of aprison in southern Alberta.

Staff at Bowden Institution confiscated multiple packages on Nov. 14, the Correctional Service of Canada said in a release on Friday.

Bowden is a medium-security prisonabout 100 kilometres north of Calgary.

Packages includedmethamphetamine,THC

The packages were filled with drugs includingmethamphetamine and THC. The agency said the institutional value the amount inmates would pay inside the prison was pegged at $495,320.

The correctional service said the seizure was the result of a combined effort between correctional officers, detector dog teams and security intelligence officers.

In July, a correctional officer was hospitalized at Bowden after he found fentanylin a car in the institution's parking lot. The 20-year-old officer had to be given the overdose-reversal drug Narcan by his coworkers after he lost consciousness.

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The Correctional Service of Canadasaid it plans on tightening measures to prevent drugs or other contraband from entering its institution.

The service currently uses ion scanners and dogs to search buildings, property, inmates and visitors, but it's now setting up a telephone tip line in the hopes of receiving additional info about drug use or trafficking at its facilities.

The agency saidcallers to the new, toll-free number (1-866-780-3784)will be protected and that their identities will remain anonymous.

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