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