Man charged in Okanagan killing convicted of dropping drugs into Manitoba prison using drone

Drugs dropped into prison

Photo: Wikipedia

Stony Mountain Institution is the oldest running federal prison in Canada, with operations dating back to 1877.

One of the men accused of killing a woman in Naramata in 2021 pleaded guilty Wednesday in a separate case that saw him drop drugs into a Manitoba prison using a drone.

Jalen Falk, 25, pleaded guilty in Kelowna court to possession for the purpose of trafficking methamphetamine, fentanyl and carfentanil stemming from an incident at Manitoba’s Stony Mountain Institution in July 2022.

Falk also faces a murder charge connected to the June 2021 killing of Kathy Richardson in Naramata. That matter is currently subject to a sweeping publication ban and cannot be reported upon.

Packages dropped into yard

The trafficking charge dates back to an incident near Stony Mountain institution in the early hours of July 2, 2022, when a drone alert system notified correctional officers of a drone near the prison.

A correctional officer investigated and saw a vehicle driving away from the area. The officer also found a package that had been dropped in the prison’s exercise yard that contained a variety of cannabis products. The package had been disguised with fresh grass glued to it.

The very next evening, in the early hours of July 3, the drone notification alarm was tripped again, and another package was found inside the yard. This second package again contained cannabis along with an ounce of methamphetamine.

The same correctional officer from the night before got into a vehicle and drove after the same car that was outside the prison grounds.

The officer followed the suspect vehicle until the RCMP took over and pulled over the car on a nearby highway.

Falk, from Burnaby, and his co-accused Shahram Tohky, from Vancouver, were found inside the vehicle along with a drone, and both men were arrested.

Later that day, the resident of a property that Falk and Tohky had stopped at reported to police that they had found a suspicious package on their property. The item was packaged similarly to the other two packages and contained 192 grams of meth and cannabis extract.

More drugs at Airbnb

While the two men were in custody, their stay at a Winnipeg Airbnb expired and a cleaning crew arrived at the home on July 5. The cleaners found a number of drugs at the home and called police.

Officer found 81 grams of a mix of carfentanil, fentanyl and benzodiazepine, 186 grams of meth, 80 grams of cocaine and further cannabis products.

Crown prosecutor Crawley said the value of drugs inside prisons are higher than they would be on the street, as drugs are harder to access, and the total value of the seized drugs from the packages and inside the Airbnb would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Back in 2022, police also said they found firearms in the Airbnb, but Crawley did not mention those seized firearms in his sentencing submission.

Seeking eight-year sentence

Crawley presented a joint sentencing submission Wednesday, proposing an eight-year jail sentence for the trafficking conviction.

He said the proposed sentence was “at the very bottom end” of the range of sentences for the conviction, but pointed to Falk's youth and lack of prior criminal record.

The drone incident occurred about 13 months after the killing of Richardson in her Naramata home.

While Crawley wrapped up his sentencing submissions on the drug conviction Wednesday, Falk has yet to be sentenced.

Meanwhile, Falk's co-accused in the Naramata murder case, Ekene Anigbo, is scheduled to face trial on the murder charge in March.