Correctional Service Canada announced Friday a 38-year-old inmate who began serving a seven-year sentence only weeks ago died at a penitentiary in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines.
Frédérick Mineau died Thursday at the Regional Reception Centre, a penitentiary where offenders are sent for a month before Correctional Service Canada (CSC) decides what penitentiary they should be sent to in the long term.
“The inmate’s next of kin have been notified of his death. As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the police and the coroner have been notified and Correctional Service Canada will review the circumstances of the incident,” CSC said in a brief statement released Friday. The statement did not include any information on how Mineau died.
On Jan. 27, Mineau, who is from the town of St-Lin, appeared before Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labelle at the Montreal courthouse and pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to heroin trafficking that were filed against him and eight other people in 2015 as part of a Sûreté du Québec investigation dubbed Project Malaxer.
On that same day, Mineau was sentenced to an overall 10-year prison term but with time served factored in he was left with a sentence of 64 months. Four other men who were part of the same heroin trafficking ring who also pleaded guilty on Jan. 27 received less lengthy sentences than Mineau.
During a press conference held in April 2015, when arrests in Project Malaxer were carried out, the SQ said Mineau was part of a group that was smuggling drugs into the Rivière des Prairies Detention Centre.
