Drug trafficker tied to minor's overdose death used drones to bring contraband into prison
Laxshan Mylvaganam used drones to bring drugs into minimum security prison
A convicted drug trafficker currently serving time for his connection with the overdose death of a minor was caught smuggling drugs into prison using drones while serving a previous sentence.
According to a document from the Parole Board of Canada, Laxshan Mylvaganam smuggled $50,000 worth of drugs into his minimum security prison in November 2022. Despite being caught, he was not charged and was released.
Mylvaganam was first arrested in Montreal in March 2022 and charged with drug trafficking offences. In a pretrial ruling, a judge described him as a seasoned trafficker who made lots of money selling a variety of drugs on social media.
He pled guilty and was sentenced to 33 months in jail. But he was out in March 2024 — his statutory release date.
He was arrested again in September and pleaded guilty to more trafficking charges. Police said that, despite still being incarcerated at the time, he was involved in operating the online drug-selling platform that sold opioids to Mathis Boivin, a 15-year-old who overdosed in his bedroom on Dec. 22, 2023.
A new parole board decision reveals that while he was serving his first sentence, Mylvaganam was caught using drones to smuggle drugs into prison.
His alleged involvement in drone smuggling while incarcerated and his avoidance of criminal charges is part of a larger problem of widespread contraband smuggling into Canada's prisons — and the challenge of holding prisoners and drone operators accountable for it.
'You are supposed to be charged for this'
Mylvaganam began smuggling drugs into prison within two weeks of being transferred to a minimum security prison in November 2022. According to the parole board decision, he was caught smuggling $50,000 worth of hash into the prison via a drone.
The decision cites "three reliable sources" that said Mylvaganam was the man behind a network that "introduced contraband by drone," and says that on at least one other occasion, in January 2023, he brought another shipment of contraband into the prison using a drone.
Despite the evidence that suggested he was the one behind these drone deliveries, Mylvaganam was not charged with a crime and obtained his statutory release in March 2024 — even though by that time, correctional officials knew about his involvement in the drone smuggling, the decision says.
When he learned that Mylvaganam had faced no charges for the alleged smuggling inside prison, Mathis's father, Christian Boivin, said he was confused.
"I don't understand why. Even if you are in prison, it's drug trafficking. You are supposed to be charged for this," he said. "If you get caught with drugs in prison, you get nothing? It's strange."
Correctional Services Canada said in a statement to CBC that "measures were taken" in this case, but it couldn't disclose what, due to the Privacy Act. Mylvaganam was transferred to a medium security prison after he was alleged to have been involved in the second drone delivery in January 2023.
A widespread issue
Jeff Wilkins, the national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, described drone smuggling as a "pandemic," and said guards struggle to hold prisoners accountable for it.
"It seems like the accountability for our inmate population is on the decrease. Inmates feel, and our members feel, as though there are no consequences and this is something that needs to change," he said.
"If they're investigated and properly tried, they need to be held accountable for that behaviour. They're putting people's lives in jeopardy."
Drone contraband deliveries are occurring at federal institutions across the country every day, Wilkins said — and yet there are comparatively few people charged with drug trafficking offences in connection with them.
The deliveries of drugs and other contraband, including cellphones and weapons, create a much more dangerous environment for guards and the inmates themselves, Wilkins said. The drug market inside prisons leads to more violence.
It also makes the environment more hazardous for guards. Intoxicated prisoners, in addition to being antithetical to the idea of prisons as rehabilitation facilities, are more unpredictable, he said.
Boivin has been critical of the 42-month sentence Mylvaganam received for drug trafficking connected to his son's death.
He has said that the police told him that Mylvaganam only faced drug trafficking charges — not manslaughter — because they could not prove who, exactly, had sold Mathis the drugs that killed him, only that he bought it on Mylvaganam's platform.
Had Mylvaganam been charged and convicted of drug smuggling while in prison two years ago, it might have led to a more severe sentence, he said.
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