Pubdate: Mon, 19 Dec 2011
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: 2011 The Hamilton Spectator
Contact:  http://www.thespec.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181
Author: Danielle Wong

TORONTO POLICE SAY THEY SEIZED ITEMS FROM HAMILTON APARTMENT DURING
PROJECT MARVEL RAID

Toronto police say officers lawfully searched and seized items from a 
Connaught Avenue South apartment in Hamilton during a countrywide 
anti-gangs sweep, but the tenant maintains she doesn't know why police 
broke down her door. 

"Officers did execute a search warrant (at this address)," Toronto 
police spokesperson Constable Tony Vella said Monday. "Officers did 
seize items from the apartment ... There was evidence of drug use from 
the apartment." 

But Vella said he could not elaborate on what items police took 
because the matter was before the courts. 

Wendy Morgan, 36, who has lived in that Connaught apartment for about 
a year, said Hamilton and Waterloo regional police only took a round 
of ammunition and two scales she received from her uncle, who works in 
antique gold. 

Police did not follow up with her after the raid on Dec. 13, she said. 

According to a search warrant obtained by The Spectator, police were 
looking for text messages and documents linked to the gang Young Buck 
Killers (YBK) as well as weapons and drugs. 

Police were also searching for records of communication with Jamal 
Wallace, 21, a Toronto man who is now facing 20 charges including the 
possession and trafficking of cocaine. But Morgan said she does not 
who he is nor did she recognize a photo of a young man police showed her. 

The officers didn't even take her medicinal marijuana when they 
forcibly entered her apartment and turned over furniture, garbage, 
laundry and her Bob Marley posters that morning, she said. 

Vella said officers had six search warrants for Hamilton locations 
under Project Marvel, an Ontario-to-B.C. sweep targeting the YBK and 
another gang, the G-Siders. 

Last week, police admitted they got the wrong Melvin Avenue home that 
same morning when they raided Sharon McCrudden's apartment while their 
real target was a vacant unit next door. 

Pamela Markland, the resident at another search warrant target on 
Roxborough Avenue, says police also wrongfully targeted her home in 
those same raids. Police have said, however, they only got a single 
address wrong in the operation. 

Morgan has been in trouble with police in the past but said she got 
clean about 13 years ago before her son was born and converted to 
Islam seven years ago. The last time she was in jail was 1997, the 
mother of four said. 

The latest raid has shaken her up, making her afraid to go out and see 
people. Her door was ripped off its hinges and her dog, Diva, was so 
afraid, she defecated all over the apartment, Morgan said. 
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