Money held by Sandro Lisi traced to drug deal
When Rob Ford’s driver was arrested, Crown says police found $900 used to buy pot
When Sandro Lisi was arrested on Oct. 1, 2013, after months of intense police surveillance, $900 of police money was found in his pocket, court heard Monday as Lisi’s trial for marijuana trafficking resumed.
The bills matched money given to an undercover cop to buy 288 grams of marijuana, court heard.
The Crown alleges Lisi’s co-accused Jamshid Bahrami conducted the transaction with the undercover offi- cer at his Etobicoke dry cleaners using marijuana supplied by Lisi.
Both Lisi, 36 and Bahrami, 49, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Monday the trial heard from Det.-Const. Daryl Bell, part of the Toronto Police professional standards unit and one of a group of officers who began surveillance on Lisi in June 2013 in what is known as Project Brazen 2.
Bell testified the operation began when they learned through Project Traveller, targeting gangs and drug trafficking in a group of apartments on Dixon Rd., that Lisi may have swapped drugs for the return of the mayor’s cellphone earlier that year.
“Our goal was not to find out what the mayor was up to,” Bell testified. “Our goal was to find out what Mr. Lisi was up to.”
He later said: “If the mayor is associating with Mr. Lisi, you want to know what is going on.”
It was Bell who ended up arresting and handcuffing Lisi during the final takedown outside the dry cleaners on the evening of Oct. 1, 2013.
About half an hour later, Bell casu- ally kicked a ginger ale can on the ground and discovered it had a fake top and contained 6.4 grams of marijuana. Two similar fake pop cans — albeit empty — were found in Lisi’s Range Rover along with a copy of Bahrami’s medical marijuana licence and rolling papers.
The Crown alleges this marijuana belongs to Lisi.
Under cross-examination by Lisi’s lawyer Domenic Basile, Bell said he did not know if Lisi had been holding the ginger ale can prior to his arrest and said that the can was not tested for fingerprints.
Bell agreed with Bahrami’s lawyer Jacob Stilman that there was nothing from the surveillance to suggest Bahrami was involved in dealing drugs to Ford or associating with gang members.
"You never observed a procession of dubious or suspicious characters going in or coming out?” Stilman said. “No,” Bell said. A small bag containing cocaine was found during a search of the dry cleaners after the arrests, officer Det. William Chase testified.
Stilman suggested store customers may have left the suspect items in their clothing, noting police found no cash or other evidence of a drugtrafficking operation.
The trial continues.