Newly released court documents suggest media outlets weren't the only ones offering cash for the infamous "crack-smoking" video of Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
"The Toronto mayor may have offered $5,000 and a car to the men with the alleged crack video, but at least one of those men ... says on the tape that he wanted $150,000 for it." (Via CTV)
That allegation comes from wiretapped phone conversations between men who authorities believe are gang members and associates of Ford. (Via CBC)
Robyn Doolittle, The Toronto Star: "Suddenly the cops are kind of looking into this group for alleged gun smuggling and drug dealing and they hear these guys talking about selling crack to the mayor of Toronto." (Via CNN)
The information on the recordings is part of the ongoing drug trafficking investigation into Ford's close friend and occasional driver, Alexander "Sandro" Lisi.
The National Post also reports the men in the recorded phone conversations said they had pictures of Ford "on the pipe" and doing heroin. Because of those photos, they weren't afraid of the mayor turning them in.
At one point, the mayor's phone was stolen while he was at a crack house. Lisi later exchanged marijuana with an alleged gang member to retrieve Ford's phone.
And, coming back to the $5,000-plus-a-car offer, The National post said drug dealers might've set Ford up by videotaping him doing crack, which raises the speculation for blackmail.
These allegations are just the latest in the Mayor Ford Saga. Recently, Toronto's city council stripped him of most of his executive powers a week after he admitted to smoking crack to reporters. (Via ABC)
But it hasn't been all bad news for Ford as of late. NBC reports the 44-year-old embattled mayor will try his hand at U.S. sports radio. He'll be calling in every week to Washington, D.C.-based WJFK to be a guest on a radio show called Sports Junkies.
