Mr. Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, dismissed as “potential hearsay” the latest allegations from a police document that suggests alleged gang members may have tried to blackmail the mayor, and that police believed Mr. Ford offered $5,000 and a car in exchange for the video. The allegations contained in the police documents released by Justice Ian Nordheimer have not been tested in court. Suggestions by police that Mayor Rob Ford tried to buy a video that shows him smoking crack cocaine are “potential hearsay” and an “outright lie,” Mr. Ford and his lawyer said on Thursday – even as Toronto Police launched a media blitz to defend its handling of the investigation. 5:51 a.m.: Mr. Siyad calls an unidentified number to say the mayor was “smoking his rocks today” and that he will upload a picture to Instagram, the online photo-sharing site. More than any other revelation in the Ford saga, these documents reveal how deeply Ford was involved with members of the Dixon Bloods, a violent drugs and guns gang whose members were busted in a series of June raids called Project Traveller. “Just because someone says, ‘Yeah, I may have driven impaired’ – you need evidence. Mr. Siyad responds that he’ll make a call and get the phone back. Fast-forward to April 20, a Saturday, before 1 a.m. It’s a pivotal day that will see drugs ordered for Ford, a visit to 15 Windsor Rd., Ford losing his cellphone and Lisi threatening the thieves, then retrieving the phone by paying with marijuana, according to material in the documents. 1:01 p.m.: Mr. Siyad calls an individual identified only as “Juice Man.” They discuss explanations they might offer when they return the phone, such as claiming they thought it belonged to Ms. Basso’s brother Fabio. More calls are made, and a gang member named Abdullahi Harun makes a call to Siyad, telling him to “go to Princess’s house because Rob Ford wants some drugs.” 
 
 Siyad is heard on a separate call saying he knows about the plan, because Princess already called him. What happens next at 15 Windsor Rd., a known crack house, is not described. Gang member Harun is heard saying “he had Rob Ford smoking on the ‘dugga.’ He said he has so much (sic) pictures of Rob Ford doing the hezza (a slang sometimes used to describe heroin).” 
 
 Siyad is heard telling Harun, who is at 15 Windsor Rd., to “take a picture of that because of what it would be worth.” 
 
 Later, just before sun-up, Siyad is heard calling someone and saying, “the mayor of the city Rob Ford was smoking his rocks today.” Later, in an almost hour-long chat, Siyad tells someone (no name is given) that he was at Princess’s house when all of this happened and he plans to put a photo on Instagram. But at 11:37 a.m. that Saturday, a very concerned Lisi, Ford’s occasional driver, is heard making calls in an attempt to retrieve Ford’s cellphone, apparently stolen during the party at the house, a bungalow just a stone’s throw from the Dixon complex. “The most troubling aspect of this situation was his involvement with certain types of people in Toronto and he’s got to explain that,” he told reporters. “Lisi threatened that if he did not get the phone back that the Mayor would put heat on Dixon,” according to a summary of a call from Lisi to Siyad. That night, police hear a woman at the bungalow, who they believe is Elena Basso, tell Mr. Siyad that Rob Ford is at her house. The mayor’s cellphone is missing, and Mr. Lisi accuses Mr. Siyad and a friend of stealing it while they were all at the Basso house. 12:21 p.m.: Another call from Mr. Lisi’s number comes in to Mr. Siyad’s phone. “Siyad advises he didn’t like being threatened and that they have a picture of Rob Ford on a pipe,” according to the police wiretap information, which notes that detectives believe he means a “crack pipe.” 
 
 An unknown man comes on the line and states: “(we) love and respect Rob Ford but (we) have Rob Ford on a lot of f---ed up situations and (we) don’t wanna say anything.” 
 
 A plan is hatched to say one of the younger men took it by accident. Later that day, Lisi arranged to meet Siyad at a Country Style doughnut shop in the area, promising to bring him some “spliffs” (marijuana). 12:51 p.m.: Mr. Lisi calls again to say he will meet Mr. Siyad at “the house” with “one of his boys.” Mr. Siyad agrees to the meeting. Later in the day, Siyad is heard on a wiretap telling another man that he received “1.5 of kush” (slang for marijuana) from “Rob Ford’s driver.” Later Siyad tells another person, a woman, that what he received was actually “Rob Ford’s kush.” 
 
 While Lisi was arranging to retrieve Ford’s phone, Ford was at an Etobicoke Park leading a community cleanup, painting over graffiti and picking up garbage. One of the men discussing this said he warned Siad that if he “saw him in Dixon he would kill him.” 
 
 Two weeks later, all of the men noted on the wiretaps discussing Ford, the video, or the missing phone were arrested in Project Traveller and charged with gun and drug offences.
– The Rob Ford saga has taken a big lurch forward with the release of police wiretap files detailing how the Toronto mayor partied and took drugs with gang members—and how his life got pretty complicated as a result. Key allegations from the police files, as detailed by the National Post, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star: The infamous video of Ford smoking crack was apparently set up by gang members who tried to blackmail him—and the mayor offered them "$5,000 and a car" for it. The offer was rejected and the owner said he planned to ask for $150,000—which he could get from media outlets if the mayor didn't pay up. It's not clear whether he did: The original video's whereabouts are unknown, but police recovered a copy from a hard drive. (Ford denies trying to buy the video, calling the latest allegations "an outright lie.") Drug dealers may have had a lot more than the video to blackmail Ford with: One gang member boasts that there are photos of the mayor in "a lot of f---ed up situations," using drugs including heroin, crack, and marijuana. When news reports on the crack video's existence appeared, one of the mayor's top aides began a frantic search and managed to track down the house where a photo showed Ford posing with drug dealers. Unknown intruders attacked the house's occupants days later, though the wiretap files do not link the aide to the attack. After Ford apparently lost his cell phone at a crack house, a friend of the mayor's provided an unknown quantity of marijuana to secure its return. During negotiations, gang members made it clear that they didn't fear threats of police pressure because of their photos of the mayor taking drugs. In a bright spot for Ford, he does not appear to be linked to a murder: One of the gang members he posed with was gunned down outside a nightclub earlier this year, but the police report dismisses any link to the crack video. The latest allegations have left many people wondering why no charges were ever laid against the mayor. "I think any ordinary person who participated in this kind of activity, if it’s founded, would find themselves in very serious trouble," a city councilor says.