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Blackmail scheme targets Rob Ford

A newly released document says police overheard alleged gang members on wiretaps suggesting they could use images they had of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford using drugs for blackmail.

Toronto police were in the midst of a widespread drugs and weapons investigation involving alleged gang members when the mayor's name surfaced on wiretaps.

Information that police gathered from those wiretaps was in the remaining portions of a document, containing allegations not proven in court, filed in the drug case of Ford's friend Alexander Lisi.

The document says police heard on the wiretaps that Ford had his phone stolen or lost at a home they believe to be a crack house and that Lisi was trying to get it back.

Police allege they overheard that Lisi threatened to "put the heat on" the gang if he didn't get Ford's phone back and that the alleged gang members said they will not tolerate Lisi's threats because they had a picture of Ford "on a pipe," which police believed meant a crack pipe.

Police allege Lisi gave the men marijuana in exchange for the return of the mayor's cellphone.



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