Mohamed Siad, the man police say filmed and then tried to sell a video of Rob Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine, has pleaded guilty to trafficking guns and drugs.
Mr. Siad entered his plea Monday morning in a Toronto courtroom and will be sentenced on Tuesday. He was one of about 60 people arrested in predawn raids in June, 2013, as a result of a year-long guns and gangs investigation by Toronto police called Project Traveller.
Beyond the charges connected to Project Traveller, Mr. Siad is a central figure in the crack video scandal that eventually led Toronto city council to strip Mr. Ford of most of his powers as mayor during his last year in office. Mr. Ford had to give up his re-election bid last year to undergo treatment for a rare form of cancer, but has returned to city hall as a councillor.
Mr. Siad is believed to have taken the infamous video in early 2013 and then attempted to sell it to media outlets.
For months, Mr. Ford denied the existence of the video after reports first broke in May, 2013, but that fall police announced that they had recovered a video that matched media reports among the deleted files on a laptop belonging to Mr. Siad.
The video included images of Mr. Ford inhaling "what appears to be a narcotic" from a glass pipe, say police documents that were later released. The former mayor has never publicly addressed what was going on in the first video, but he admitted to smoking crack cocaine in a second surreptitiously taped drug video. After The Globe and Mail reported on that recording last year, Mr. Ford went to rehab.
On Monday, Mr. Siad pleaded guilty to trafficking firearms in association with a criminal organization, conspiracy to traffic in firearms and possession of prohibited or restricted firearms. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, according to an agreed statement of facts.
The statement includes details of how Mr. Siad arranged in March of 2013 to sample a possible one-kilo purchase of cocaine at a Walmart store at Square One in Mississauga and was observed on surveillance video returning to his car with a Tim Hortons cup containing the drug.
Mr. Siad also was heard on police wiretaps discussing plans for gun purchases and sales during the spring of 2013. Wiretap evidence showed he went to Windsor to buy a handgun and also captured several calls where he discussed transactions.
Also Monday, Alexander (Sandro) Lisi, a frequent companion of Mr. Ford during the spring of 2013, made a brief appearance in a nearby courtroom. Mr. Lisi faces extortion charges in connection to efforts to obtain the video. A date for his trial is expected to be set later this week.