Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2007
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Omar El Akkad and Alex Dobrota

POLICEMAN IMPLICATED IN GLOBAL DRUG RING

TORONTO -- A Toronto police officer is accused of using his authority 
to assist a multimillion-dollar drug-smuggling operation and a 
botched kidnapping plot.

The charges against Constable Ioan-Florin Floria come after a 
massive, months-long investigation involving Toronto police and nine 
other units in Canada and the United States resulted in the 
dismantling of an alleged international drug ring yesterday. Officers 
seized millions of dollars in narcotics and arrested two dozen 
suspects, many with Eastern European backgrounds.

The focus of the bust - which the Toronto police drug squad 
spearheaded in the fall of 2006 - is an alleged Eastern European gang 
accused of smuggling marijuana into, and cocaine out of, the United 
States. Specifically, the investigation centred on the transportation 
of drugs between British Columbia, Ontario and Michigan.

Multiple police forces from all three jurisdictions monitored alleged 
gang members closely during the eight-month investigation.

At one point, officers managed to withhold a large shipment of 
marijuana from the gang. According to police, some gang members 
believed one of their own was responsible for losing the shipment, 
and hatched a plot to kidnap that member. It was at that point that 
police stepped in.

Yesterday, police in Ontario and British Columbia executed 29 search 
warrants, arresting 24 suspects and seizing 1,000 pounds of marijuana 
valued at about $3-million. Officers also confiscated $30,000 in 
cocaine, three handguns, two stolen vehicles and about half a million 
dollars in U.S. and Canadian currency. In all, more than 1,000 
charges were laid, and police expect more arrests soon.

Constable Floria, a 34-year-old officer with eight years' experience 
in the traffic services division, is accused of using his power as a 
police officer to help gang members plan the kidnapping, among other 
things. Police allege the constable searched a police database using 
other officers' badge numbers to avoid detection, and later 
obstructed an investigation into the kidnapping plot.

"One of the more serious threats of organized crime is that they very 
often make an effort to compromise and corrupt people in positions of 
power and influence in our judiciary and in the police," Toronto 
Police Chief Bill Blair said yesterday. "It is worrisome that this 
could happen, but I don't believe it's widespread [within the police force]."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman