Ford may have tried to buy video
Police allege photos of crack use also exist
TORONTO — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have offered $5,000 and a car to two men trying to sell a video of him smoking what appears to be crack cocaine seven weeks before the video was revealed in the media, according to newly revealed portions of a police document.
Toronto police were in the middle of a drugs and guns probe targeting an alleged street gang when secretly recorded conversations led investigators to believe Ford not only may have known an incriminating video existed but also tried to buy it.
New allegations from a large police investigation also claim:
One of the men suspected of peddling the “crack video” of Ford said he also had pictures of the mayor “doing the hezza,” which is a slang term for heroin.
Alleged gang members said they were not afraid of the mayor turning them in to police because they had pictures of him “on the pipe.”
The mayor’s close friend and occasional driver Alexander Lisi used purported influence over police as leverage in dealing with a gang, saying if he didn’t get his way “the mayor would put heat on Dixon,” which
The impunity felt by alleged drug traffickers … might explain why police took the allegations so seriously.
was the gang’s territory.
The mayor’s cellphone was stolen while he was at a crack house after late-night calls were made arranging a drug delivery “because Rob Ford wants some drugs.”
Lisi gave marijuana to an alleged ang member for the return of Ford’s stolen phone.
Ford might have been set up by drug dealers videoing him consuming drugs knowing it could be valuable, raising the spectre of blackmail.
The newly released portions of a sworn police affidavit filed in court are the clearest explanation yet of how Ford became entwined in an explosive and elaborate police probe that led to him being stripped of most of his powers by city council.
It offers missing pieces of the puzzle of why police pored over the minutiae of Ford’s life when he was never charged.
The impunity felt by alleged drug traffickers and potential blackmail might explain why police took the allegations so seriously.
The allegations are contained in newly revealed portions of an immense summary of a police probe into Ford and Lisi; the accuracy of the sworn affidavit has not been tested in court. The summaries of wiretap evidence the Crown unsuccessfully fought to keep private after a legal challenge from the media, including Postmedia News, was previously blacked out when the affidavit, called an Information to Obtain, was revealed Oct. 31. Postmedia News has not independently verified the police claims.
The new allegations are surprising — even after Ford’s outlandish antics made headlines around the world and pushed him into popculture notoriety through latenight comedy routines and Internet memes over his crack use, “drunken stupors” and lewd commentary.