Police uncover alleged Edmonton Remand Centre


Five people, including a man awaiting trial for manslaughter, allegedly used the guise of private correspondence between lawyer and client to smuggle methamphetamine and prescription drugs into the Edmonton Remand Centre.

“That is, obviously, quite troubling when the system goes out of fluorescent lights its way to ensure that communications between a lawyer and their client are strongly, strongly protected, as they need to be, however we can see that it can be abused,” Edmonton police Insp. Greg Preston said Tuesday.

Rudy Jay McCoy, 37, Kenneth Dwayne Richards, 28, and Sean Luther Reaugh, 31, were all in custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre at the time of the alleged drug smuggling conspiracy. Two other people — 48-year-old Meagan Jane Gargas and Darcy Nicholas Payne, 36 — are accused of being part of the smuggling operation from outside the institution.

Michelle Davio, a spokesperson for Alberta Solicitor General and Public Security, said the remand centre’s drug detection procedures work.

“This one worked,” she said. “It was detected. Police were called. Drugs were taken away.”

She said inmates open privileged correspondence in front of a correctional worker, who watches while the correspondence is opened but doesn’t read the documents. Davio would not say how the drugs were discovered.

Preston said police launched an investigation in July, after being contacted women handbags by correctional officials. The four-month investigation culminated in charges of conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance.

“This wasn’t just for their own personal use. We’re alleging that the idea was that they were going to further it and sell it to others within the institution,” he said.

Though there was a relatively small amount of drugs compared with other newsworthy drug busts, Preston said that, in an environment where drugs can sell for 10 times their street value, the drugs seized were still a significant amount.

“Again, we’re talking grams. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you Led lamp consider that oftentimes you don’t need a gram for a hit of methamphetamine ... that is still a significant quantity going into an institution,” he said.