UPDATE: Inmate dies at Joyceville Institution

Witton Luu, an inmate at Joyceville Institution, died while in custody on Aug. 15.

Luu, a 25-year-old originally from Toronto, had been serving a sentence of three years and nine months for possession of illegal substances for the purpose of trafficking. He had been at Joyceville since May 17.

Union of Canadian Correctional Officers told CKWS News that Luu died of a suspected overdose while in custody at Joyceville Institution and that his death is still under investigation.

Luu was one of nine people charged with 75 offences in a large drug bust in 2017, involving several Toronto-area police forces, OPP and RCMP.

An RCMP press release from Nov. 9, 2017, says police infiltrated a high-level organized crime ring, that they say was trafficking and importing drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, MDA, and LSD. Police say this crime ring was also dealing with weapons, contraband tobacco and participating in bookmaking.

Since Luu’s passing, Correctional Service Canada says the warden initiated a ’53 search’ in a specific range. A 53 search is when contraband is suspected to be in an institutional range and inmates are designated to their cells while staff search for drugs and weapons, said Chris Bucholtz Union of Canadian Correctional Officers regional vice-president.

Union of Canadian Correctional Officers has made a request to the Correctional Service Canada for body scanners at the institution to decrease the amount of contraband entering the premises.