'FINK FUND' PROBE KILLS 115 DRUG CASES

RCMP Investigates Alleged Corruption Of City Police Force

The federal Justice Department is continuing to stay drug
prosecutions without explanation as a 10-month-old RCMP-led probe
into allegations of corruption in the Toronto police force appears to
be widening its investigation.

Charges have been withdrawn or put on hold in as many as 150 drug
cases in Toronto since the fall of 1999 because of the corruption
allegations.

The Toronto police force and a number of former drug squad officers
are also facing at least six civil suits seeking a total of more than
$17-million in damages. The allegations, which have not been proven
in court, include harassment, kidnapping and theft.

Nearly 18 months after a number of criminal lawyers said their
clients had money and jewelry stolen during police raids, eight
former Central Field Command drug squad officers were arrested in
November, 2000. They were accused of stealing small amounts of money
from the "fink fund" used to pay drug informants.

The Ontario Attorney-General's office stayed those charges in
February because proceeding to trial "may compromise an ongoing
investigation." The eight officers remain on restricted duty outside
the drug squad, a Toronto police spokeswoman confirmed.

The federal Justice Department, which is responsible for all drug
prosecutions, confirmed last August that charges had been stayed in
at least 115 cases. A stay allows the Crown to resume its prosecution
within one year, but in many cases that period has expired.

Many of the cases stayed originally are believed to have involved
investigations by a drug squad unit led by Staff Sgt. John Schertzer,
one of the officers charged in the fink fund scandal.

But court records indicate many of the most recent prosecutions to be
stayed involved officers from a different unit within the drug squad.

Since July, 2001, more than 20 Internal Affairs detectives, led by
RCMP Chief Superintendent John Neily, have been investigating the
corruption allegations at the request of Toronto Police Chief Julian
Fantino.

Supt. Neily has not commented publicly about the probe and the
Justice Department has repeatedly declined to explain why any of the
drug charges have been stayed.

"There really isn't any further information that we can put forward
at this time," said James Leising, the head of criminal prosecutions
in the Toronto office of the Justice Department.

A lawyer for a suspected drug trafficker is asking the Justice
Department, the Ontario Attorney-General and Toronto police to end
the secrecy in a court case scheduled to begin on May 21.

Documents filed by lawyer Edward Sapiano in Ontario Superior Court
accuse the disbanded Central Field Command squad of falling "within
the [legal] meaning of a criminal organization."

Mr. Sapiano's client, Roman Paryniuk, charged in connection with the
seizures of nearly $160-million of hashish, marijuana and ecstacy, is
asking for disclosure about any internal investigation into 23
Toronto police officers.

Mr. Paryniuk claims police stole money during the March, 1999,
seizure of at least $664,000 from his bank safety deposit box. The
court documents point to at least two other drug cases involving the
same team of officers where charges have been stayed and police
searched a safety deposit box.

In these two cases, court transcripts indicated the officers refused
to allow bank employees to be present when searching the boxes or
make an itemized list of what was seized. The bank employees were
told it was to protect the "privacy" of the accused, or that there
might be a "noxious substance" inside.

The disclosure request is necessary to establish that the officers
stole Mr. Paryniuk's money, argued Mr. Sapiano in a written
submission filed with the court.

"This theft is simply one more step in a long-standing pattern of
coordinated conduct," Mr. Sapiano said, "for the purpose of stealing
currency, jewelry, narcotics and other valuables from alleged drug
dealers and innocent people."