Toronto cops were watching when Rob Ford ‘crack video’ was shown
Man peddling video was being watched by Toronto Police when he met with Gawker editor John Cook

Ishmael N. Daro
Published: October 24, 2013, 12:45 pm
Updated: 3 hours ago
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When Gawker editor John Cook flew to Toronto to watch a video allegedly showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, he wasn’t alone. Apparently six Toronto police officers watched the meeting go down as part of an investigation, only days before the crackgate saga exploded into the news.

According to the Toronto Star, the man trying to sell the infamous video, Mohamed Siad, was being watched by Toronto Police as a suspected gun dealer when they followed him to an empty parking lot on May 14. But he was conducting a very different transaction that night. He was trying to sell “a cellular phone, not a gun,” according to a police surveillance report.

The police were ready to swoop in and arrest Siad in the case of a transaction, but there was no sale.

Weeks later, Siad would be swept up as part of Project Traveller, a massive gun and drug bust by Toronto Police. He was charged with participating in a criminal organization, conspiracy and the trafficking of guns and cocaine. He was subsequently identified as the man who showed the alleged crack video to Cook, as well as to two Toronto Star reporters two weeks prior.

Cook says the meeting with Siad had made him uncomfortable, describing it as “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.”

“So to learn … 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,” Cook wrote at Gawker.

It was only two days after that meeting that Gawker broke the crack story, followed quickly by the Star. To date, the video has never surfaced and Mayor Ford has never fully addressed the allegations beyond saying he “cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”

If only Cook had bought a gun that evening in May, cops could have swooped in and retrieved the phone. As it stands, it seems very unlikely the footage Cook and the Star reporters watched will get a public airing — if it even exists anymore.

Ford photo taken outside what police call “drug house”
The bungalow where Mayor Rob Ford was photographed with three alleged gang members is described as a “drug house” in an official Toronto Police Services document.


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

The bungalow where Mayor Rob Ford was photographed with three alleged gang members is described as a “drug house” in an official Toronto Police Services document.
Detectives from the organized crime enforcement unit, working on the gangs and gun probe Project Traveller, were watching the house on April 9 “for the purpose of intelligence gathering,” according to one of several police surveillance reports that identify the house.
Gawker: The Toronto Police Department Watched Me
While police watched and took multiple photographs of people visiting 15 Windsor Rd., the house was visited by alleged drug dealer Mohamed Siad, the man who tried to sell the Ford “crack video” and who told Star reporters he had previously sold drugs to the mayor, a claim the Star has not been able to confirm.
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The now notorious nighttime photo of Ford with his arms draped around Muhammad Khattak and Monir Kassim, who were arrested in the June Project Traveller raids, and Anthony Smith, who was murdered in March, was taken in front of the Windsor Rd. bungalow’s garage.
The photo, believed to have been taken in 2012, was given to the Star this spring by one of the men trying to peddle a cellphone video of the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and uttering homophobic and racist remarks.
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 bungalow is home to the Basso family, including Ford friend Fabio Basso and his sister, convicted cocaine trafficker Elena Johnson. It is owned by their mother, Lina.
On this spring day in April, the police noted they watched as “several unknown individuals attend and leave the residence.” A search warrant was later authorized for the house but it is unknown if police did the search.
Police teams were watching the house as part of the Project Traveller investigation that in June led to mass arrests and seizure in the Dixon Rd. area and elsewhere of guns, drugs and cash.
No residents of 15 Windsor Rd. were arrested.
Police Chief Bill Blair told the media these activities “have a devastating impact on communities and on families and on those who are victims of violence and crime in our communities.”
During several days of surveillance on the Windsor Rd. address, at least 51 photographs were taken by police. There is no indication in the documents that Ford visited the house on these days.
Neighbourhood sources have told the Star the Basso home was known for drugs. In a nearby set of Dixon Rd. highrises, where some of the people involved with the video lived and which became the epicentre of the Project Traveller raids, Elena Johnson goes by the nickname “Princess”.
Additional police surveillance reports from Project Traveller show that on other days during the month of April police watched as alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods street gang (the target of the year-long probe) visited the Basso house. One visitor was Siad, the man who showed the Star and Gawker the video.
One of Siad’s visits to 15 Windsor Rd. was on April 11 of this year. Police had surveillance on Siad throughout the day. Just after 6 p.m., the 27-year-old and three others arrived at the Basso home in a grey Toyota Camry, with Siad driving. The report describes what happens next:
6:23 p.m.: The foursome walks into the house.
7:12 p.m.: Another man, dressed in a beige coat, comes to the house from the nearby set of Dixon Rd. highrises.
7:33 p.m.: Siad leaves and the now four men leave.
The second visit, which took place the afternoon of April 15, was much quicker. A crew of six undercover officers, driving different vehicles, followed Siad, wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt, from his apartment on Richgrove Dr. to Windsor Rd.
3:54 p.m.: Siad enters the front door of the Basso home.
3:58 p.m.: Siad leaves, jumps in his car and drives away.
The reports show that Siad was visiting the Basso house around the time he was trying to sell the video to the Star and U.S.-based website Gawker.
The Star’s Robyn Doolittle got the initial tip about the video on April 1st, from a man who was trying to broker its sale on behalf of the video’s owner (a man who would later be identified as Siad).
It took a month of back and forth before Siad hustled into the back seat of a car at the Dixon Rd. highrises and played the 90-second clip three times for Doolittle and reporter Kevin Donovan. Before disappearing he offered a final reminder: “Money is protection.”
On June 13, police busted down Siad’s door as part of the Project Traveller raid and arrested him. He faces a slew of drug and gun trafficking charges and is now locked up at Maplehurst correctional centre. He recently refused a request for a visit by the Star.
As part of an ongoing investigation, the Star has previously reported that the rundown Basso bungalow is the house Ford’s “close friend,” Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, visited in the days after the Star published its story about the video.
“Where are the guys who made the video, Fab?” Lisi asked, according to someone present that day.
A day later, just before midnight, Fabio Basso, his girlfriend and Fabio’s mother were assaulted by an unknown attacker brandishing an expandable baton who broke into their home. No charges have been laid in the attack.
The Star phoned the Basso residence Wednesday and asked to speak with Elena Johnson, or anyone else living at the home, about a story. A woman, who did not identify herself, said: “I definitely know she’s not going to give you any answers so I suggest you don’t call anymore.”