Methamphetamine in Plastic Kinder Eggs, Two Drones in a Rental Car, and a Charge Laid One Day Short of the Anniversary: Edmonton Police Publish Two Edmonton Institution Contraband Files Six Minutes Apart (Originally Reported September 9, 2026)

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Police Service published two separate Edmonton Institution contraband files on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, six minutes apart. The first went out at 11:58 a.m. under file number 26R072; the second at 12:04 p.m. under 26R073. Both were worked by the same unit, the EPS Institution Investigation Unit, in partnership with Correctional Service Canada. Both carry the same two quotations, word for word. And both describe seizures made in the first half of 2025 that did not produce a charge until 2026.

One file is a drone delivery stopped in the institution’s own parking area. The other is a parcel opened at the mail desk. Together they are a reasonably complete picture of how a federal penitentiary is supplied, and of how long it takes to charge anybody for it.

One Day Short of a Year

The parcel was opened on February 20, 2025. Ndukaihe was arrested on February 19, 2026. That is 364 days — one day short of the anniversary, and, for a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act summary matter, one day short of a limitation period that would have closed the file. The releases do not comment on the timing and do not say whether it was deliberate. It is simply what the two dates are.

The drone file moved no faster. The seizure was May 7, 2025; the release says charges came after a review of evidence “in 2026” and gives no charge date at all. Neither release explains what took the time, though the parcel file’s own description — surveillance video, shipping records, payment records, purchase records for the contents — accounts for some of it. Tracing who bought a particular electronic item and who paid for the postage is a paper exercise, and paper exercises do not produce arrests quickly.

The Inmate Is Charged Too, and That Is the Structural Point

Most institutional contraband files charge the person on the outside holding the package. This one charges both ends. Dakota Aubichon, 31, is described by the Edmonton Police Service as an inmate of the institution, and he faces conspiracy to commit possession for the purpose of trafficking along with being a party to the offence of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

“Party to the offence” is the count that attaches to someone who aids or abets a principal rather than physically holding the drugs, and it is the natural count for the inside end of a drone arrangement: the man waiting for the delivery never touches the rental car in the parking lot. Read alongside the conspiracy count and the release’s statement that two suspects “made an agreement with an inmate,” the charge structure is the EPS alleging a three-party arrangement rather than two couriers acting alone.

The parcel file has no inmate charged. The intended recipient is referred to only as “an inmate,” is not named, and does not appear on the charge sheet. The releases do not say why, and no inference is drawn here.

What a Gram Is Worth Inside

The two files put numbers on something the beat usually only gestures at. The drone load — 328 grams of methamphetamine and 180 grams of cannabis resin, 508 grams of product in total — is valued at $336,000, which works out to roughly $661 per gram across the whole load. The parcel — 93 grams of methamphetamine and 46 grams of cannabis resin, 139 grams in total — is valued at more than $100,000, or roughly $719 per gram and upward.

Those two figures, arrived at independently by the same unit from two unrelated seizures a year apart, land within about nine per cent of each other. That consistency is itself the interesting fact: it suggests a settled internal valuation for what a gram fetches behind the wall, and it is the entire commercial logic of the enterprise. The arithmetic here is this briefing’s, not the Edmonton Police Service’s; the service publishes the weights and the totals and does not break either down to a unit price.

Kinder Eggs and Miniature Phones

The concealment methods are worth recording because they are the part that does not change. In the drone file the cannabis resin was packaged in plastic Kinder eggs — small, sealed, opaque, roughly the right mass for a drone payload, and sold in any supermarket. An EPS image caption accompanying the release reads “Methamphetamine concealed in plastic Kinder egg.”

In the parcel file the drugs were inside electronic items, shipped alongside two miniature cell phones, seven USB drives and one SD card. The phones and the drives are not incidental to a drug file: a miniature handset is what lets an inmate arrange the next delivery, which is how a single successful parcel becomes a supply line rather than a single event. Nicotine patches round out the list, and are contraband inside a smoke-free institution in their own right.

The Partnership Is the Stated Theme

“The EPS Institution Investigation Unit is grateful for the excellent working relationship we have with Correctional Service Canada,” said Staff Sergeant Eric Stewart of the EPS Investigations Branch. “These investigations are complex and require close collaboration between our services to ensure the security and safety of our institutions.”

“This investigation highlights the importance of strong partnerships in protecting both institutional and public safety,” said Lee Anne Skene, Acting Regional Deputy Commissioner for the Prairie Region at Correctional Service Canada. “The successful outcome reflects the professionalism, expertise, and dedication of both Correctional Service Canada and the Edmonton Police Service. Together, we remain committed to disrupting criminal activity, strengthening institutional security, and working collaboratively to protect the safety of our staff, our institutions, and the communities we serve.”

Both quotations appear identically in both releases, which is the clearest signal that the service treated the two files as a single publication event despite their being separate investigations with separate accused.

What the Releases Do Not Contain

No hometowns are given for Ager, Ganton-Tinker or Aubichon. No charge date is given in the drone file. No occurrence or court information numbers appear in either release. Neither states whether the drones were ever flown, whether any earlier delivery succeeded, or how the two suspects came to be at the institution in a rental vehicle on May 7, 2025. Neither names the rental company or gives the vehicle. Neither says how many cellular phones were recovered in the drone file. Neither names the intended inmate recipient in the parcel file or states whether that inmate faces any institutional or criminal consequence. Neither gives the methamphetamine purity, and neither explains the basis of the dollar valuations.

Critically, the Edmonton Police Service names no gang, no street gang, no motorcycle club and no criminal organization in either file. No such affiliation is asserted here. These are contraband and trafficking allegations, and they rest on the facts of the operation rather than on any stated membership.

All four accused are presumed innocent. Every count described above is an allegation that has not been tested in court.