Toronto mayor Rob Ford crack scandal, Somalis own the evidence

[Nin-Yaaban]

Sad.

[GaraadMon]

It's almost undeniable now that the video exists and it's only a matter of time before it's released.It's unfortunate that it'll come after the by-election, as the deputy Mayor, who was endorsed by the Fords, was just elected to a provincial seat in Ontario.

[Safferz]

A lot happened while I was in Ethiopia and had limited internet access so this thread isn't as up to date as it was during the earlier days of Crackgate, but I'll continue posting updates again as usual

 

Police may have watched Gawker ‘crack video’ meeting

 

By: Jayme Poisson News reporter, Published on Thu Oct 24 2013

 

Six officers from Toronto police’s organized crime unit were watching suspected drug and gun dealer Mohamed Siad.

 

It was Tuesday, May 14, and police had learned Siad was to be involved in a possible firearms deal. They’d covertly followed him from his nearby apartment and planned to wait for a transaction, then arrest everyone involved, according to a police surveillance report.

 

The arrests didn’t happen.

 

Siad, later revealed as the person peddling a video showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine, was involved in a different type of transaction: The sale of “a cellular phone, not a gun,” the report says.

 

As it turns out, Siad’s meeting with that “unknown party” was the same day, place and time that John Cook, the editor of U.S.-based website Gawker, met with two men trying to sell the Ford “crack video.” (Cook has seen a picture of Siad and believes he was the man who played him the video.)

 

Two days later, Cook published his account of that meeting, including his viewing of a well-lit, clear 90-second cellphone video of the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and uttering homophobic and racist remarks.

 

A few hours after that, the Star revealed that two of its reporters had seen the same video two weeks earlier.

 

Ford has previously said he “cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.” Neither Ford nor his staff members have responded to detailed requests from the Star for comment on this story.

 

The surveillance report of the Gawker meeting reveals that six Toronto officers appear to have watched the unfolding of one of the biggest political scandals to ever hit Toronto.

 

The meeting took place at the Dixon Rd. highrises that became the epicentre of June’s Project Traveller guns and gang raids.

 

While the report offers no details about the cellphone up for sale, it does give a time-stamped sequence of Siad’s movements:

 

2:53 p.m.: The police crew follows Siad as he drives from his apartment on Richgrove Dr. to the nearby Dixon Rd. highrises.

3 p.m.: Siad parks his black Honda Civic underground at the apartment building at 370 Dixon Rd.

3:12 p.m.: Detectives learn Siad is selling a cellular phone, not a gun.

3:30 p.m.: Surveillance is discontinued for the afternoon and officers attend a debriefing.

 

Gawker’s Cook told the Star this week that at 2:23 p.m. that day, the second man, who was trying to broker the video, picked him up at a nearby chain restaurant and drove him to the Dixon Rd. highrises to meet up with the video’s owner. From there, “it was probably an hour before we saw the video.”

 

In his May 16 post, Cook recounted the conversation he had with the video’s owner (who he now believes is Siad) while they were sitting in an idling car. During the meeting the man said he had taken the video within the last six months.

 

“You’re sure it’s crack?” Cook asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

“You’ve seen him smoke crack before?”

 

“Yes. Gotta jet.”

 

When Siad showed the video to Star reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle, he made the same claims. The Star has been unable to verify Siad’s claims.

 

On June 13, as part of the Project Traveller raids, police armed with a search warrant busted down the door of Siad’s apartment on Richgrove Dr. and arrested him. Police did not find the video there. As of about one month ago, police still hadn’t come into possession of it.

 

After the crack video scandal erupted, Siad told people the video was “gone.” Neighbourhood sources say people in the Dixon Rd. community were angered by the media firestorm and wanted the attention to go away.

 

Siad recently turned down a request by a Star reporter for a visit at Maplehurst detention centre, where he is being held while facing a slew of gun and drug charges.

 

As for the American journalist almost caught up in a Canadian police sting:

 

“I am pleased to know the watchful eye of the Toronto police department was looking out for me,” said Cook.

 

Jayme Poisson can be reached at (416) 814-2725 or jpoisson@thestar.ca

[Safferz]

And Gawker's editor's piece after today's Toronto Star article:

 

The Toronto Police Department Watched Me Watch Rob Ford Smoking Crack

 

Five months ago, I flew to Toronto to meet a crack dealer. We hung out together briefly in a car, he showed me a video on his iPhone of the mayor of Toronto smoking crack cocaine, and then he split. Subsequent events unfolded, and for reasons that escape me and make me fundamentally question my settled views on Canada and Canadian-ness, Rob Ford is still the mayor of Toronto. Anyway, it turns out the cops were watching us the whole time.

 

It was, frankly, a little unnerving to be hanging out with a twitchy crack dealer in the parking lot of a large building devoted to low-income housing (even though, this being Canada, it was nicer and cleaner than most Manhattan residential towers). So to learn, via the Toronto Star's Jayme Poisson, that the crack dealer who was showing me the video was the subject of a Toronto Police Department surveillance operation during our meeting is rather comforting in retrospect.

 

I did not know this at the time, but the crack dealer I met with is named Mohamed Siad. He has since been arrested in a broad sweep of Somali-Canadian youths purportedly involved in the drug-and-gun trade. And according to a Toronto Police Department surveillance report obtained by Poisson, a team was watching Siad at the very moment we were meeting. They apparently suspected that I was there to purchase a gun from him. From the Star:

 

It was Tuesday, May 14, and police had learned Siad was to be involved in a possible firearms deal. They’d covertly followed him from his nearby apartment and planned to wait for a transaction, then arrest everyone involved, according to a police surveillance report....

 

As it turns out, Siad’s meeting with that “unknown party” was the same day, place and time that John Cook, the editor of U.S.-based website Gawker, met with two men trying to sell the Ford “crack video.” (Cook has seen a picture of Siad and believes he was the man who played him the video.)...

 

While the report offers no details about the cellphone up for sale, it does give a time-stamped sequence of Siad’s movements:

2:53 p.m.: The police crew follows Siad as he drives from his apartment on Richgrove Dr. to the nearby Dixon Rd. highrises.

3 p.m.: Siad parks his black Honda Civic underground at the apartment building at 370 Dixon Rd.

3:12 p.m.: Detectives learn Siad is selling a cellular phone, not a gun.

 

3:30 p.m.: Surveillance is discontinued for the afternoon and officers attend a debriefing.

 

It's not clear from the Star report whether the cops knew that I was attempting to buy the cell phone, as opposed to just an old used iPhone. It's been reported that the cops knew about a purported video of Ford smoking crack before any reporters—me or the Star's Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan—had seen it. It's also not clear exactly how the cops on the surveillance team learned, as they were watching Siad get into the car I was sitting in, that our meeting was about a phone and not a gun.

 

Before our meeting, the tipster who brought me to meet Siad called him from his cell phone. Siad briefly came to the car, but left to go charge the phone's battery. During his absence, the tipster called him from his cell phone again. It seems likely that the cops were listening in on those calls, and heard Siad and the tipster discussing a phone. (It's illegal for Canadian newspapers to publish information about police wiretaps.)

 

In other news from the Star, the crack house where Rob Ford smoked crack, where his childhood friend lives with his mother, and where he was photographed with three suspected gang members, two of whom were later shot in a gangland style hit, was under police surveillance earlier this year because it was regarded by the Toronto Police Department as "drug house." It's unclear whether they saw Ford there.

[Wadani]

Interesting update Saffs. Thanks

[Safferz]

BREAKING NEWS: Toronto police have the crack tape! Watch the police press conference here:

 

 

 

Will post articles as they're published...

[Safferz]

Rob Ford video scandal: Police have the video that appears to show mayor smoking crack, Blair says

 

Ford friend Alexander Sandro Lisi charged with extortion related to the video, police chief says

 

By: Kevin Donovan Investigations, Star investigations

Published on Thu Oct 31 2013

 

Toronto Police have recovered the video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said Thursday.

Blair said at a press conference, “The video files depict images that are consistent with what has previously been reported” in the media.

Ford has long denied the video existed.

 

Blair also said Alexander Sandro Lisi will face an extortion charge related to the video. The Star earlier reported that Lisi was involved in attempts to recover the video.

 

Ford has been the target of a police investigation that witnessed and photographed him taking part in meetings with Lisi, according to police documents released Thursday.

 

“It's safe to say the mayor does appear in the video,” Blair told reporters.

 

“Detective Sergeant Giroux was detailed to investigate the matter of the Mayor Ford allegations and to substantiate any of the claims that have been made,” the documenst said.

 

Those allegations began with the news, published by the Star and Gawker, of the Ford video.

 

The details of an extensive police investigation into Ford’s drug activities come six months after two Toronto Star reporters saw a video showing the mayor, obviously impaired, smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and making homophobic and racist slurs.

 

In a heavily censored portion of the document, police said that the day after the world learned news of the video that appeared to show Ford smoking crack cocaine, top homicide detective Sgt. Gary Giroux was assigned to “investigate the existence of a cellular phone containing a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine.”

 

The search warrant document contains allegations that have not been tested in court. The only charges laid in the matter involve Lisi and the drycleaner swept up in the Oct. 1 raid.

 

Ford emerged from his home around 9:45 a.m. and walked toward waiting reporters and photographers yelling “Get off my driveway,” before getting into his SUV and driving away.

 

Multiple police surveillance photographs that pinpoint Ford or his assistant with Lisi have been released as part of the ITO (information to obtain a search warrant).

 

Three copies of the now infamous photo of Rob Ford standing in front of 15 Windsor Rd. with Anthony Smith, Monir Kasim and Mohammad Khattak are included in the documents. The file also included a picture of the garage door alone on which police have circled recognizable markings in the photo featuring Ford.

 

Police generated a “timeline of Rob Ford related information.” In this heavily redacted section, it said: “On April 9, police surveilled 15 Windsor, believed to be a crack house. Looked like drug trafficking going on. . . . “No known persons observed.” No arrests that day.

 

And later, “A unified search query of Mayor Rob Ford does not reveal that his phone was reported stolen.”

 

The documents said: “Confidential source tells police Det. Const. Clarke that 15 Windsor Drive (sic) is a ‘trap’ house. The house belongs to a couple of crack heads but Dixon guys go there often to ‘chop’ crack or just hang out and get drunk.

 

“The source advises that they have seen the following people at this address: Liban Siy Ad, Abdhullahi, Monir Kassim, Ahmed Dirie, Anthony Smith.”

From March 18 to June 24, Lisi had phone conversations with Ford and two of the mayor’s special assistants — Thomas Beyer and Chris Fickel, according to the documents.

 

Investigators obtained a list of calls made to and from specific individuals on Lisi’s phone.

 

On the same phone, Lisi also spoke with Fabio Basso, who lives at 15 Windsor Rd.

 

The phone records also showed Lisi had contact with Liban Siyad, an alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods arrested during the Project Traveller raids.

Between Aug. 7 and Sept. 13, Lisi had telephone calls with Ford almost daily, often multiple times a day.

 

In the 44 days, Lisi and Ford had 349 “points of telephone contact,” the documents said.

 

There are also multiple examples of on-the-ground surveillance.

 

For example, just before 4 p.m. on Sept 8, after calls were placed to Lisi from the mayor’s Deco label business and his car’s On Star system, the pair met at the Esso gas station near Ford’s home.

 

Police watched as Ford entered the gas station, bought a newspaper and a Gatorade, then waited in his car. When Lisi arrived at 4 p.m., Ford got out of his car and entered the gas station again to use the washroom without speaking to Lisi, who backed his Range Rover up besides the mayor’s vehicle.

Ford got back in his car, the pair roll down their windows, talk briefly, and then leave.

 

Lisi also had contact with members of Ford’s staff, including his logistics director David Price, current executive assistant Tom Beyer, current special assistant Xhesjo Hasko and former special assistant Chris Fickel.

 

The documents detail another rmeeting, in the early evening of July 1,1 as the two arrived separately to an Esso station just 350 metres from Ford’s home.

 

The gas station’s security footage shows Ford arriving in his black Escalade around 5:40 p.m. and heading straight to the station’s bathroom. As the mayor’s in the washroom, security cameras caught Lisi drive up. He appears to be texting someone on his phone while holding an envelope.

 

Lisi entered the Esso and “searches around the refrigerators,” police said, before picking up a few Gatorades and a bag of chips.

 

Lisi left the store. Security cameras caught him standing near the mayor’s vehicle, holding the envelope.

 

“Lisi appears to be looking around, possibly scoping out the area,” the document said.

 

“He walks along the passenger side of the Mayor's Escalade and walks out of (the security camera’s) frame. He is not seen again.”

 

Around the same time, Ford left the washroom and bought s a Gatorade and pack of gum. Ford left the store about 10 minutes after arriving.

 

On June 28, Toronto police Detective Shertzer and Detective Constable Davey interviewed Fickel.

 

According to the documents, Fickel told police that the mayor and Lisi spent a lot of time together until “media release events [crack video scandal].”

“Fickel does not know where the mayor got marijuana from but has heard that 'Sandro' may be the person who provides the mayor with marijuana and possibly cocaine.”

 

With files from Robyn Doolittle, David Bruser, Jesse McLean and Kenyon Wallace

 

Fickel told investigators that Ford met Lisi through Don Bosco football coach Payman Abdoodowleh, a man with numerous convictions including three assault convictions, a break and enter and assautl with a weapon.

 

The former staffer added that Aboodowleh “said that he was mad at Lisi because he was fueling the mayor’s drug abuse.”

 

Among the photos is one of Richview Cleaners in the Richview Plaza where Lisi and Jamshid Bahrami, the owner of the dry cleaning shop, were arrested on Oct. 1. On June 14, police followed Lisi to the plaza, where he entered the cleaners for several minutes and left carrying a pizza box, the documents said.

 

Under the section called “Biography/Background of Mayor Rob Ford,” the document notes Ford’s political history and philosophy, community service, volunteer work, football coaching career and football foundation.

 

Outside his home Thursday morning, a visibly angry Ford shouted at reporters: “What don't you understand? Get off my property.”

 

Ford only said “Thank you” in response to questions about whether he is the focus of a police drug investigation into Lisi.

 

As the journalists backed onto the sidewalk, Ford moved within inches of one photographer, yelling in his face, “Get off my property.”

 

The documents suggested police Project Traveller wiretaps also picked up details of meeting between Gawker’s John Cook and tipster who claimed to have an “associate” in possession of the video.

 

For Ford, the tough campaigner who leads Ford Nation, it remains to be seen whether the fact that police surveillance teams spent the summer watching him consort with drug and weapons dealers will have an impact on the former Scarlett Heights football player’s popularity. Olivia Chow, John Tory, Karen Stintz, and other potential mayoral candidates are waiting in the wings. Ford, who proudly says he has never given up on anything, has warned the election will be a “bloodbath” and that his fellow candidates will “bring up everything.”

 

The information to obtain the search warrant will provide Ford critics with much to discuss, everything from allegations of drug purchase and use, to connections to Toronto’s underworld.

 

 

Read the rest of the article here.

[Safferz]

Alleged Rob Ford video recovered by Toronto police: Chief Bill Blair

 

Natalie Alcoba, Megan O'Toole, Adrian Humphreys, Josh Visser and Peter Kuitenbrouwer | 31/10/13 | Last Updated: 31/10/13 11:55 AM ET

 

 

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says investigators have recovered a digital video file that depicts Mayor Rob Ford and is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

 

Chief Blair also announced that police had on Thursday taken into custody the mayor’s friend, Alexander Lisi, and charged him with extortion. Lisi will appear in court today.

 

The police chief said he was “disappointed” after viewing the video.

 

Chief Blair said the video was recovered as part of the Project Traveller raids on alleged gang activity in the city’s northwest end this summer.

 

“I think it’s fair to say the mayor does appear in that video but I’m not going to get into the detail of what activities is depicted in that video,” Chief Blair said in a news conference at a police headquarters.

 

He said it is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

 

The Toronto Star and Gawker.com reported earlier this year that they saw video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine and making a homophobic slur about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

 

“We’ve done our job here,” says Chief Blair. He said a second digital file that was “relevant” had also been recovered.

 

Blair made the extraordinary announcement shortly after court documents were released, revealing Ford’s close relationship with Lisi, an alleged drug dealer.

 

Toronto police assigned one of its most senior detectives to specifically investigate allegations that Mayor Rob Ford is captured on a cell phone smoking crack cocaine, new court documents reveal.

 

Details of the probe are contained in a lengthy “information to obtain” (ITO) used by police to obtain a search warrant in the case of Alexander Lisi, a friend of the mayor’s who is accused of drug trafficking. A judge ordered portions of the ITO released to media.

 

“On May 18th, 2013 Detective Sergeant [Gary] Giroux was assigned to investigate the matter brought forth by the Toronto Star and gawker.com and their allegations against Mayor Rob Ford. Specifically to investigate the existence of a cellular phone containing a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine,” the sworn affidavit states.

 

The massive document includes pictures of Ford interacting with Lisi. The pair would often meet in parking lots and once met in “the woods.”

 

The document alleges that Ford visited an Esso gas station and when Ford was inside, Lisi placed an envelope inside the mayor’s vehicle.

 

In July, police obtained a “production order” which allowed it to view a list of the telephone calls that Lisi made on his Rogers cell phone with a number of people, including Mayor Ford, Richview Cleaners, Fabio Basso, Liban Sayad and three people in the mayor’s office: Brooks Barnett, Thomas Beyer and Isaac Ransom.

 

The court file shows that Mayor Rob Ford repeatedly called Lisi in March, 2013. One line notes: “March 28, 2013: (Anthony Smith is killed). Lisi and Mayor Ford speak 7 times.”

 

 

In March, 2013, Mayor Ford called Lisi’s cell phone 44 times. On March 30, Ford called Lisi twice; the same day, Lisi phoned Fabio Basso, a man whose house appeared in a photo of the mayor connected to an alleged crack video, five times.

 

Police found four numbers associated with Mayor Ford in Lisi’s phone records, including the mayor’s OnStar, cellphone, home line and a fourth number believed to be a second home landline.

 

Between June 25 and July 19, Mayor Ford called Lisi 27 times, records indicate; 19 of those calls were from the OnStar number in the mayor’s Escalade.

 

During the same time period, Lisi called the mayor 18 times, but only called his cellphone once — a “dramatic change” from previous phone records, police say.

 

On July 11, police allege, Lisi placed a package in the mayor’s Escalade at an Esso gas station without speaking to him, after the pair exchanged brief phone calls earlier in the afternoon.

 

“Lisi can be seen walking around near the Mayor’s Escalade still holding onto the manila envelope,” the ITO states. “Lisi appears to be looking around, possibly scoping out the area. Shortly after this image he walks along the passenger side of the Mayor’s Escalade and walks out of frame… Mayor Ford exits the Esso Station, gets back into his Escalade and exits the parking lot.”

 

Under a heading called “Project Traveller and the Rob Ford connection”, the police affidavit details surveillance that occurred at 15 Windsor Road, a home “believed to be a “Trap House” (crack house) for the named parties to sell drugs from.”

 

15 Windsor is believed to be the backdrop of a now infamous photo that shows Mayor Ford with a man who was later murdered [smith], and two other men who were later arrested. It alleges that surveillance crew observed activity consistent with drug trafficking and that “no known persons” were seen. “There were no arrests or seizures made during this operation.”

 

Then, large swaths of information are blacked out, but there is a first reference in the document to Lisi, with his address and a brief description of his interactions with Toronto police. A subsequent line states “a unified search query of Mayor Rob Ford does not reveal that his phone was reported stolen.”

 

Chief Bill Blair was announced a news conference at 11:30 a.m. to discuss Project Brazen 2, the investigation that led to the Lisi arrest.

 

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

 

Ford refused to answer reporters’ questions about the documents Thursday morning at his home in Etobicoke. He screamed at media to “get off my property.”

 

The nearly 500-page document was released Thursday morning, one day after Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer found no “principled basis” on which the court should give notice to dozens of named parties.

 

Several media outlets filed an application to access the massive ITO (information to obtain a search warrant) after police this month raided a west-end dry cleaners, arresting owner Jamshid Bahrami and Lisi, the mayor’s friend and occasional driver.

 

The document, called an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant, referred to as an ITO, is a lengthy compendium of information used by police to convince a judge to issue a warrant that will allow them to search private property to further a drug investigation.

 

While not facts proven in court, it is information that officers swear gives them “reasonable and probable grounds to believe” there is evidence of a crime.

 

This ITO was used by Toronto police to search Lisi’s home at 5 Madill Street, and was sworn before a judice of the peace on Oct. 2 by Detective Constable Ali Nader Khoshbooi.

 

This ITO is unusually long and detailed for such a document.

 

For months, police have been investigating the mayor and a number of his associates, including Lisi, as part of Project Brazen 2, an offshoot of the June guns-and-gangs sweep dubbed Project Traveller.

[GaraadMon]

It's only a matter of time now. I only wish the video had been released well before his destructive transit policies had been approved.

[Safferz]

Blackflash;983690 wrote:

It's only a matter of time now. I only wish the video had been released well before his destructive transit policies had been approved.

I just hope he's not able to survive this. Every time I think he's finished, he manages to deny his way through it and stay put. He seems the type not to leave office until he's forcibly removed/arrested.

 

 

 

 

That said, day. MADE.

[Oiler]

Toronto's liberal media are truly disgusting, look at what they're doing to this man property? I really hope Toronto re-elects him as a mayor again. This man is saving taxpayers money and that's all the voters should care about.

[Safferz]

Under surveillance: Rob Ford seen urinating in public, dumping liquor bottles after Lisi meetings

 

Unpleasant behaviour, some of it behind an Etobicoke public school, is recorded in police surveillance documents released Thursday.

 

 

 

Mayor Rob Ford was observed urinating in broad daylight behind an Etobicoke public school and dumping empty liquor bottles during one of his many meetings with Alexander “Sandro” Lisi detailed in police search warrant documents released Thursday.

 

The bizarre incident was one of several involving the mayor caught by police conducting surveillance on Lisi and the mayor this summer as part of Project Brazen 2, a drug trafficking investigation that is a spinoff of the major guns and gangs operation, Project Traveller.

 

On the afternoon of July 28, police conducting surveillance at Lisi’s home on Madill St. in Etobicoke noticed Ford driving around the neighbourhood in his black Escalade. They followed the mayor to determine if he was going to meet with Lisi, according to the search warrant documents.

 

Police search warrant documents released Oct. 31 show that on July 28, Ford was observed dropping a bag into a garbage can behind Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy shortly before a meeting with Sandro Lisi. Police discovered two empty vodka bottles and receipts from McDonald's, photos of which became part of the Project Brazen 2 investigation.

 

Ford was tracked to an LCBO at Crossroads Plaza at Weston Rd. and Highway 401, where security cameras inside the LCBO recorded the mayor making a purchase and leaving. Ford then bought food at a McDonald’s drive-thru before driving to an empty parking lot behind Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy, the school Ford and his brother, Doug, attended. The mayor was then observed getting out of his Escalade and dumping a plastic bag into a nearby garbage can, the documents say.

 

Lisi arrived shortly after, in his Range Rover. Photos that appear to have been taken from the air show Lisi parking about 6 metres away from the mayor, walking over to Ford’s vehicle and getting in on the passenger side. The two men “engaged in conversation” for about 30 minutes, the document says, but “shortly after this, Mayor Ford exits the driver’s seat of the Escalade (Lisi stays in the Escalade), walks to the treed area (where Lisi’s vehicle is parked), urinates, then returns to the driver’s seat of the Escalade.”

 

A photo included in the police documents appears to show Ford standing between Lisi’s Range Rover and a tree.

 

Shortly after, Lisi got out of Ford’s Escalade and threw a McDonald’s bag into the same garbage can used earlier by Ford.

 

After the pair left, police officers went through the garbage can and found what are “believed to be two empty vodka bottles” — one for Iceberg Vodka and the other for Russian Prince Vodka— in the plastic bag Ford threw away earlier. Lisi’s garbage is described in the documents as “a submarine sandwich bag.” Also found by police were two McDonald’s receipts.

 

All the items were seized and photographed.

 

Allegations in the police search warrant have not been proven in court. Lisi and an Etobicoke drycleaner are the only people charged in the case.

 

On Aug. 13, a Tuesday, Lisi was at home when he received a call from a cellphone associated with Deco Adhesive Products, the police documents released Thursday say. Ford’s family-owned business is Deco Labels & Tags.

 

Police then followed Lisi to what the documents refer to as Weston Wood Park, now called Douglas Ford Park in honour of the mayor’s entrepreneur/politician father. Ford arrived at the park in his Escalade a few minutes later, after which the pair “met and made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour,” according to the documents.

 

The two men emerged from the woods and drove away in their own cars. Police then went into the woods and located the area in the park where Lisi and Ford met, where they found a vodka bottle and a juice bottle, which they seized.

 

“So as not to reveal that the original bottles were seized replacement bottles were left behind,” the documents say.

 

The search warrant materials also discuss Ford’s appearance at the Taste of the Danforth festival on Aug. 9, when eyewitnesses described the mayor as slurring his words and having trouble standing.

 

Earlier that day, police saw Ford and Lisi leave Lisi’s home in the mayor’s Escalade. At the time, Lisi’s Range Rover was not at his home, but parked unoccupied behind Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy. A short time later, Lisi was seen returning home in his Range Rover, the documents say.

 

The police materials about that day include a Toronto Star story about the mayor’s appearance at the Danforth street festival and a photo of the mayor taken at the Esso station at Scarlett Rd. and Edenbridge Dr. in Etobicoke later that night. The documents note that the gas station is where Ford and Lisi were observed by police meeting on several occasions.

[Safferz]

This is great. Rob Ford appears to have called a radio station as "Ian from Etobicoke" last night.

[SomaliPhilosopher]

The guy is a joke!

[GaraadMon]

Safferz;983818 wrote:

This is great. Rob Ford appears to have

called a radio station as "Ian from Etobicoke" last night

.

That definitely sounds like him. He has a weekly radio show so his voice is fairly recognizable. He doesn't seem to think things through much.