Towing industry under spotlight
GTA tow-truck turf wars by organized criminals renew calls for controls
More arrests are anticipated soon in the GTA towing industry, which has been wracked by at least four homicides and scores of shootings and firebombings over the past two years.
Industry insiders say they hope further arrests can clear the way for what they say is badly-needed reform.
“It’s time to license and regulate this industry provincially,” Teresa Di Felice, assistant vice-president of government and community relations at the Canadian Automobile Association, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been saying that for over five years now.”
It’s tougher to become a barber than a tow-truck driver in Ontario, Di Felice said.
Although it takes just a valid driver’s licence to become an entry-level tow-truck driver, candidates to cut hair in Ontario must pass a licensing exam on topics such as styling, colouring, wigs and hairpieces.
“There definitely has to be regulation,” De Felice said of the towing industry.
York Regional Police said last month that 30 more arrests are expected as an investigation dubbed Project Platinum probes organized crime and escalating violence in the industry.
Supt. Mike Slack made the comments while announcing 20 arrests and laying more than 200 charges after officers seized $1.2 million in fentanyl, cocaine, crystal meth and cannabis, as well as a machine gun among dozens of firearms.
A dearth of regulations has allowed organized criminals to flood the towing industry, threatening the livelihoods of honest operators, critics say.
According to York police, four distinct criminal organizations have been fighting over turf in a complex fraud ecosystem that involves kickbacks and insurance fraud at auto centres, physiotherapy clinics, car rentals, body shops and more.
Questions to Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney were referred to communications assistant Jacob Ginger.
“Ontario is committed to ensuring a high standard of safety for the tow-truck industry,” Ginger said in an email. “This violence remains a serious cause for concern and our government continues to prioritize the cross-ministry work underway to deter this behaviour.”
Critics say the illegal side of the industry is being fuelled by untraceable cash kickbacks and bogus insurance claims.
“It’s all people washing each other’s hands,” an industry source said.
Criminals even ram into vehicles and stage accidents when there aren’t enough real collisions, police said.
De Felice said this all clears the way to a multitude of fraudulent insurance claims, in which consumers are “not even aware of what is being billed on their behalf.” The CAA responds to more than a million towing requests and service calls a year in Ontario, where there is a confusing patchwork of regulations.
Tow-truck licensing is currently handled at the municipal level, but only about 20 of the province’s 444 municipalities have a system in place, De Felice said.
Ottawa moved to license its industry after three city officers were charged last month in an alleged kickback scheme.
The CAA and other industry groups are pushing for licensing that would discourage tow trucks from racing to crashes and remove discretion from police officers on the scene to reward tow truck drivers.
The current system also encourages battles over what are considered prime spots along major highways to wait for collisions, critics say.
Scarborough tow-truck driver Lawrence Taylor Gannon, 28, was considered a fixture near Highway 401 and Leslie Street, before he was shot to death execution-style in the driveway of his home on Ivy Green Crescent on April 29, 2019. No charges have been laid in the murder.
“That’s the hot spot,” a source connected to the towing industry said.
Gannon changed companies several times during his eight years in the business, but refused to give up his corner, which was a 20-minute drive from his home.
Shortly after Gannon’s murder, a man considered an enforcer for a GTA towing company was fired upon, the source said, noting that drivers are often armed now.
“They travel in twos and they all have guns,” the source said. Things have become more brazen over the past few years, De Felice said.
Outlaw bikers have had a toehold in the industry for years, but sources say they are being challenged for turf by groups of industry newcomers, who are often quicker to violence.
Youths from street gangs are also being recruited to carry out violent attacks, sources say.
Last month, a 15-year-old and a17-year-old were charged with first-degree murder in the May 14 shooting death of tow-truck driver Hashim Kinani, 23, of Toronto, whose his body was found in a truck outside an apartment complex near Panama Court and Kipling Avenue.
The legal firm of Carr Law in
Vaughan worked for insurance companies in their legal battles against tow-truck firms.
De Felice said the firm was forced to close after it was twice set on fire, and a gunman shot through the windows in broad daylight.
At least two of the four people charged in the Christmas Eve 2018 shooting death of Soheil Rafipour, 33, were connected to the towing industry.
Another victim, Lingathasan Suntharamoorthy, 36, was affiliated with a towing company when he was shot and killed inside his highrise apartment, near Kennedy Road and Highway 401 in January 2019. No charges have been laid in his murder.
Montreal cracked down on violence in its towing industry after a 2017 report by the city’s inspector-general Denis Gallant, which concluded that most of the city’s tow companies were run or supported by organized crime groups like the Hells Angels and the Mafia.
His report noted that organized criminals were drawn to the towing industry in part because it dovetails nicely with other criminal pursuits.
“In fact, it seems that towing is an activity that appeals to organized crime because tow trucks on the road waiting for a call to tow a vehicle are in an ideal situation to engage in sideline activities,” Gallant wrote, noting that some of his city’s drivers were also involved in drug trafficking, car theft, pimping, money laundering and loansharking.