WOUND WIDENS

Dozen Cops Linked To 'Serious Criminal Behaviour'

The scope of alleged corruption within a Toronto Police drug squad appeared
to widen yesterday with the release of previously sealed court documents.
Information contained in police affidavits suggests allegations go far
beyond criminal charges laid against six former drug cops 13 days ago and
also appears to contradict Chief Julian Fantino's statement that the
scandal is "isolated" and has been dealt with appropriately.

The affidavits, released by the Ontario court of appeal, contain a
statement by RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily, head of the probe, that "evidence
of criminal activity exists against 17 members" of the Central Field Command.

In another affidavit, Neily stated 12 were involved in "serious criminal
behaviour."

"I am attempting to identify only those who are alleged to have committed
the most serious offences," Neily wrote.

The affidavits contain allegations officers were involved in the theft of
"large quantities of drugs and the later resale of drugs" to "significant
drug criminals and organized crime figures, including outlaw motorcycle
gang associates."

One officer is alleged to have been "actively involved" in drug trafficking
in recent months.

There are also allegations an officer was targeted by a sting operation in
which cops posed as money launderers. The officer rode shotgun on the
staged delivery of hundreds of thousands of dollars and stolen diamonds; he
was told the loot came from illegal drug transactions.

There are also suspicions more than one central drug crew may have been
involved in "serious criminal activity" including thefts from safety
deposit boxes.

Toronto lawyer Edward Sapiano, whose April 1999 complaints prompted Fantino
to appoint Neily to head a 25-man task force to probe the squad, said the
new revelations bolster his call for a public inquiry and "foreshadow the
nature of the evidence we can anticipate at the criminal trial.

"In my view, the nature of the trials will render a public inquiry
inevitable," Sapiano said last night.

Charged are six former drug squad cops: Staff-Sgt. John Schertzer and
Detectives Steve Correia, Joseph Miched, Raymond Pollard, Richard Benoit
and Ned Maodus.

Schertzer is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, three counts of
attempting to obstruct justice, perjury, theft over $5,000, assault causing
bodily harm and extortion.

Correia is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, two counts of
attempting to obstruct justice, two counts of perjury, theft over $5,000
and extortion.

Miched is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and two counts each
of attempting to obstruct justice and perjury.

Pollard is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, perjury and two
counts of attempting to obstruct justice. Benoit is charged with conspiracy
to obstruct justice, assault causing bodily harm and extortion.

Maodus is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, assault causing
bodily harm and extortion and five counts each of attempting to obstruct
justice and perjury. Maodus is also charged with two counts of possession
of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking, another count relating to
heroin and possession of Ecstasy.

Police allege they found the drugs on March 22, 2002, one day after OPP
arrested Maodus on unrelated charges of sexual assault, assault causing
bodily harm, two counts of assault, uttering threats and weapons charges.

Four more ex-drug cops -- Jason Kondo, Greg Forestall, Jonathan Reid and
Mike Turnbull -- were named as unindicted co-conspirators but were not charged.

The affidavits -- filed by police the past 30 months in a bid to keep a lid
on details surrounding the freeing of convicted drug dealer Simon Yeung in
2001 -- refer to evidence that links 12 ex-drug cops to "significant
criminal behaviour."

Yeung, who pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking after he was busted by
Schertzer's crew in 1999, served 18 months of a 45-month sentence when
prosecutors told him they would support an appeal.

An initial affidavit, filed on July 5, 2001, by Det.-Sgt. Randy Franks of
the Toronto Police internal affairs unit, detailed allegations of how
Schertzer's team hid the existence of a police agent -- a drug dealer
recruited to assist officers -- in a search warrant and then tried to cover
it up at court.

Since then, Neily has filed six subsequent affidavits in which he persuaded
the appeal court to keep the details of Franks' probe under wraps so as to
prevent disclosure prior to the end of his own investigation.

In the affidavits, Neily said he had "identified eight cases in which
reasonable and probably grounds exist to support criminal charges."

Neily also wrote that, by mid-summer 2002, he had "concluded 17 cases due
to a lack of evidence. In many of these cases, the information provided by
witnesses or confidential informants could not be corroborated," he wrote.

A detailed list of allegations in one affidavit lists Schertzer and 14
members of his team with 122 potential criminal charges associated with 28
cases Neily's team reviewed. The affidavits also allege that Maodus stole
cocaine and guns and then sold them.

In addition, they reveal that the federal department of justice has had to
stay or withdraw "over 200 cases" related to the drug squad probe.