Most guys are trying to get out of the notorious Ottawa jail, but not young Damian O'Reilly.



He was actually pretty desperate to get inside the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre after hatching a drug-smuggling plot that would see marijuana sold to inmates for 10 times its street value.



All he had to do was find a crack in the system, some sure-fire way of getting arrested and jailed.



And it had to be quick, for O'Reilly, 20, had "hooped" not one, not two, but eight Kinder Surprise eggs filled with marijuana, tobacco, matches and rolling papers before setting out to get arrested on June 19, 2016.



The Italian chocolate egg treat that comes with a toy inside (assembly required) is one of the most popular ways of smuggling contraband into Canadian jails. The yolk-coloured plastic capsule that holds the surprise toy is thin and flexible, making it easier to 'hoop' — a jail term for inserting contraband into your rectum.



O'Reilly figured the quickest way to get arrested would be to throw a rock at a police cruiser in front of the courthouse and, sure enough, he got the job done in minutes flat. It helped that he was already on probation, so when he was arrested, he was held for bail and shipped off to the old Innes Road jail.



And that's where his plot unravelled.



It's not known if the guard noticed O'Reilly was in some discomfort but whatever the reason, the guard had suspicions that O'Reilly might be smuggling drugs. The young inmate was escorted to dry cell No. 9. A dry cell has no plumbing and guards will either attempt to seize the contraband or wait for it to be expelled.



In this case, it was O'Reilly himself who, once alone in the dry cell, removed eight Kinder Surprise eggs from his rectum. A guard had to then collect the eggs and photograph them before securing them inside the Ottawa police drug safe at the jail.



In all, the eight eggs contained 59 grams of marijuana, a gram of MDMA, tobacco, rolling papers and matches.



O'Reilly pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and was sentenced Monday to two years, less 250 days credited for pre-trial custody. His failed smuggling attempt is documented in an agreed statement of facts filed in court.



Defence lawyer Paolo Giancaterino praised his young client's efforts to improve himself since his arrest.



"Damian has been working hard to turn his life around. He is a young man who is aiming to be a productive member of our community when he is released," Giancaterino said.



O'Reilly's hooping of eight Kinder Surprise eggs is believed to be a record in criminal defence and jailhouse circles, with the closest recorded feat coming in at just four eggs back in 2010.



A year earlier, in 2009, and also at the Ottawa jail, inmate Gregory Ingram, 33, choked on a Kinder Surprise egg filled with drugs and later died at hospital. It was a strip search at the Innes Road jail that led to his death in the early morning hours of June 21, 2009. The guards noticed that he reached into his underwear and then brought a closed fist to his mouth, according to an inquest. It was obvious that he was trying to hide the drugs in his mouth. Paramedics later discovered the yellow plastic egg lodged in his throat. They were able to remove it, but not before Ingram’s brain was deprived of oxygen long enough to be left in a permanent vegetative state. He died three days later after his family removed him from life support.



In that case, the drugs were smuggled for personal use. But in O'Reilly's case, the drugs were bound for the lucrative jailhouse market, where drug debts are usually paid in e-transfers to third parties. Each customer is given a numerical identifier and when their third-party representative makes the transfer, the number associated with the customer is included in the cents column of the transfer amount, making it easy to track payments. It is not known if O'Reilly was forced to smuggle in the drugs at someone's behest or if he was acting alone.



Shutting down smuggling into Ontario jails is something the province has spent money on recently. A body scanner machine — a 918-kilogram device that takes a high-definition picture of an inmate standing on a moving platform that passes through a narrow X-ray beam — was installed in the Ottawa jail on Aug. 29, 2016. The machine was one of 26 bought by the province at a cost of $9.5 million.



gdimmock@postmedia.com



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