On Tuesday, June 21, a visitor at the Bowden Correctional Institution was caught with multiple packages of contraband.

The seizure took place in the medium security unit, with efforts from a dog team, security intelligence officers, and correctional officers.

The contraband seized included tobacco and 57 grams of hash oil, estimated at a value of $5000.

John McKill, Assistant Warden, said that the visitor was arrested by the Innisfail RCMP and may face criminal charges.

"The RCMP take over with the arrest and it will be up to them and the courts now to determine what happens."

McKill said that there are a number of tools the facility uses to prevent drugs from entering their facility, including ion scanners and drug-detector dogs to search buildings, personal property, inmates and visitors.

"We try and do as much coverage as we can. It's one of the tools we use for the zero tolerance on drugs in our institution, so we do use the drug dogs as much as possible."

A complete smoking ban was introduced in 2008 by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) in all federal correctional institutions.