Toronto police raids, Toronto investigators knew about an ongoing relationship between Mayor Rob Ford and the men he's seen posing with in a widely publicized photograph that has ties to his alleged drug use, police sources tell CBC News.
Two of the men pictured with Ford were arrested today in a series of pre-dawn raids targeting guns and gangs in the city's west end. A third man in the photo, Anthony Smith, was shot dead outside a King Street nightclub two months ago.
The massive bust this morning involved 17 different police agencies, which searched 30 locations in Toronto along with others in Windsor, Guelph and Waterloo, Ont.
Among the addresses targeted was 15 Windsor Rd., the house at which Ford was photographed posing with Smith and the other two men. Another address searched by police was the family home of Muhammad Khattak, who is on the far right of the photo.
The sting operation, dubbed Project Traveller, involved police knocking down doors and in some cases using stun grenades to rouse suspects from their beds and make multiple arrests.
The operation began in June 2012 and targeted gang-related drug activity that Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said involves gangs operating along Dixon Road between Kipling and Islington Avenues in northwest Toronto. Blair said there were criminal connections that reached as far west as Alberta.
In a press conference, Blair cited a number of successes of the "complex investigation" that he said will make streets safer including:
19 arrests in Toronto, nine more in Windsor, Ont., a total of 19 warrants issued.
40 firearms seized.
$3 million in narcotics seized.
More than $572,000 in cash seized.
“We can make a difference by incapacitating the most violent of offenders,” said Blair. “We know many families that have lost their sons to violence.”
He said the investigation is connected to drug distribution but also violent crimes including murder, attempted murder and robbery. Blair also said the arrests will have implications "far beyond this neighbourhood."
One of the addresses searched in Thursday’s pre-dawn raids was 320 Dixon Rd.
That address is reportedly the location mentioned in reports suggesting drug dealers may have stashed an alleged video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine.
The Dixon Road building is steps away from a house on Windsor Road linked to a notorious picture of Ford that appears to show the mayor posing with suspected drug dealers. That photo was shown to journalists by people trying to sell the alleged video.
The alleged video has yet to surface, but the allegations have roiled Toronto City Hall since the story first broke in mid-May.
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