toronto rob ford

Rob Ford allegedly offered $5K and a car for crack tape

Rob Ford offered alleged Dixon Road gang members a car and $5,000 in return for the crack video weeks before its existence was reported by Gawker and the Toronto Star, a batch of newly released court documents suggest.

In a March phone conversation logged by police, Toronto East Detention Centre inmate Siyadin Abdi called the mayor's office. Under interview, Abdi did not admit making the call but he was later heard speaking to Mohamed Siad, one of the men who allegedly tried to sell the video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, and appeared to discuss an offer from Ford.

"Five thousand and a car ... what the fuck is that?," he allegedly said. Siad said he would "meet with him and ask for '150.'"

It is not clear from the documents if any of the offers were accepted or if Ford ever obtained the video.

Another key part of the ITO relates to the attempted recovery of Rob Ford's stolen cellphone. Police record that the mayor threatened to put "heat" on Dixon if the phone, allegedly stolen from 15 Windsor Road, a home police have labeled a crack house, wasn't returned promptly.

As a result, a deal was struck whereby the phone was delivered in exchange for 1.5 kgs of "kush" - marijuana.

Another portion of the documents, ordered released this evening by a Superior Court judge, suggests an alleged gang member talked about pictures of Rob Ford using heroin during a tapped phone conversation.

"Harun said that he had Rob Ford smoking on the "dugga". He said he has so much pictures of Rob Ford doing the hezza."

It also appears David Price, Rob Ford's former logistics chief, linked the video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine to the murder of Anthony Smith, but the theory was tossed out by police after conducting a series of wiretaps.

Anthony Smith, a man who appears in the notorious photograph with Rob Ford at 15 Dixon Road, was shot dead outside a nightclub on King Street in March in an act of retaliation over an unrelated robbery.

According to a sentence highlighted in the Toronto Star, "Price disclosed that the cell phone containing the recording of interest belonged to the deceased (Anthony Smith) and that it was the motive for his murder."

Rob Ford has not been charged with a crime and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: Chris Bateman/blogTO


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