Ford photo snapped in front of what cops call ‘drug house’: report
Posted October 24, 2013 12:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An Etobicoke bungalow where Mayor Rob Ford was photographed with three young men is described as a “drug house,” according to one of several Toronto police surveillance reports obtained by the Toronto Star.
The infamous photo of Ford with his arms around Anthony Smith, 21, who was murdered in March, and two men, who were arrested in the Project Traveller police raids in June, was taken in front of the bungalow’s garage on Windsor Road.
The bungalow belongs to the Lina Basso, who lives with her son Fabio and daughter Elena Johnson, a convicted cocaine trafficker, the Star reported.
Detectives from the organized crime enforcement unit working on the gangs and guns Project Traveller investigation were monitoring the house in April, the Star said. The home was visited by several people, including an alleged drug dealer who tried to sell a cellphone video of the mayor smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine.
The photo is believed to have been taken last year and was given to the Star in the spring by the man trying to sell the video. CityNews hasn’t seen the video and cannot verify its authenticity.
Ford denied he uses crack cocaine about a week after the allegation was first reported by U.S. gossip website Gawker.com and the Star on May 16 and 17, respectively.
The mayor also said, “As for a video, I can’t comment on a video that I’ve not seen or does not exist.”
The mayor’s office wasn’t immediately available to comment on the latest report.
