Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2015
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Christie Blatchford
Page: A5

LISI: STRANGE DRUG CASE ON A MERRY RIDE

Dry Cleaner Had Legal Right to Possess Pot

Probably the strangest little drug-trafficking case going on in the 
whole country continued its merry way Thursday, with the revelation 
that an alleged marijuana dealer was in fact licensed to possess, 
grow and store - guess what? - medical marijuana.

This is the weed trial of Alexander (Sandro) Lisi and a mild-mannered 
Etobicoke dry cleaner named Jamshid Bahrami.

The two are arguably on trial only because they were unlucky enough 
to be connected to the most dangerous rotund white man in Canada, the 
former Toronto mayor, Rob Ford.

Mr. Lisi was Mr. Ford's friend, occasional chauffeur and purported 
connection; Mr. Bahrami owned the dry cleaners in the strip mall Mr. 
Ford favoured.

"Were you aware that Mr. Bahrami had a medical marijuana possession 
licence? That he could legally possess 1,800 grams, which is about 
four pounds?" Mr. Bahrami's lawyer, Jacob Stilman, asked the Toronto 
Police undercover agent Det. Ross Fernandes, who in August and 
September of 2013 was avidly courting Mr. Bahrami. "No," said Det. 
Fernandes. "That was known [by Toronto Police] by mid-July," Mr. 
Stilman sputtered, "and no one told you that?

"That he [Mr. Bahrami] had a designated grow licence? That he could 
store 15 kilograms?"

"No," Det. Fernandes said. "No."

The two men came to the attention of Toronto Police because by that 
summer, Mr. Ford's infamous video, in which he smoked crack cocaine, 
was public, as was his penchant for hanging with low-level 
disreputable persons, and he was under investigation for suspected criminality.

In the end - after a whopping investigation that involved GPS 
trackers, wiretaps, body packs, aerial surveillance and God knows how 
many cops and man-hours - Mr. Ford was never charged criminally.

Only Mr. Bahrami, now 49, and Mr. Lisi, now 36, and two other 
small-fish dealers were ever arrested.

Mr. Bahrami suffers from severe, chronic and debilitating rheumatoid 
arthritis, which is why he had a licence to smoke medical weed. He 
limps noticeably, and can often be spotted in the halls of the Old 
City Hall courts leaning against and into a wall.

Though he appears to be in almost constant pain, he is unfailingly 
courteous and pleasant, and, as Det. Fernandes acknowledged during a 
particularly sarcastic part of Mr. Stilman's cross, when he was 
suggesting that Mr. Bahrami saw the agent as a friend, "Was Mr. 
Bahrami a nice man? Absolutely."

Under Mr. Stilman's questioning, in fact, Det. Bahrami admitted that 
in his six weeks of working Mr. Bahrami, during which the two spent 
between 10 and 15 hours together, he never saw the dry cleaner sell a 
single doobie.

"How many drug deals did you observe?" Mr. Stilman asked. "None, right?"

"Just the one," the agent replied. But, Mr. Stilman pointed out, that 
was an exchange where Mr. Bahrami bought - not sold - a small amount 
of marijuana from a man named Dan.

"There was no procession of dubious characters in and out of Mr. 
Bahrami's store, was there?" the lawyer asked.

"None that I can think of," Det. Fernandes replied.

In fact, the agent agreed that in his weeks as the undercover 
operative for the sprawling police Project Brazen 2, the result was a 
bust of 1.5 pounds of marijuana purchased.

"It's safe to say this operation was not like any other you've been 
involved in ... in scope and scale for 1.5 pounds and .777 grams [a 
sample Mr. Bahrami gave the agent from his own personal stash]?" 
"Yes," said Det. Fernandes. He and his five-member team from the drug 
squad were told at first only that Mr. Bahrami was the target - and 
weren't informed that he was a legal medical marijuana user. Only 
later, the agent said, did he learn that Mr. Lisi - upon whom he 
never clamped eyes or spoke - was also a target. And it appears he 
was never fully informed that the operation was actually focused on Mr. Ford.

On the wiretaps that secretly recorded many of the conversations Det. 
Fernandes had with Mr. Bahrami, and which have been played for 
Ontario Court Judge Ramez Khawly, two things are quite clear.

The first is that Mr. Bahrami appeared a lonely and trusting man, who 
accepted Det. Fernandes as the low-level dealer he was pretending to 
be, and tried to befriend him. Twice, he even had the agent drive him 
to pick up his little boy.

But the second is more germane - as Mr. Stilman put it once: "So far, 
we have a suspected marijuana dealer with no weed to sell and he's 
asking you to find a grower for him?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom