TORONTO COPS CHARGED

Rogue Drug Squad Alleged

TORONTO -- Six longtime veterans of Canada's largest urban police force
were hit yesterday with a battery of criminal charges after a two-year
probe into allegations of corruption, deceit and brutality among members of
the city's drug squad. Between July 1995 and March 2002, the officers
allegedly forged notes and police records, gave false testimony and
affidavits to obtain search warrants and failed to account for seized
evidence, said RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily, head of a special Toronto
police task force probing the squad.

'Not Above The Law'

"The special task force further alleges that the accused ... deliberately
betrayed the trust of some of those in the justice system, thereby
victimizing the entire justice system, those who serve in it and the
public," Neily told a packed news conference at Toronto police headquarters.

"Police officers are not above the law. It never has been and never will be
acceptable for police to engage in criminal activity or take the law into
their own hands. There is no excuse."

All told, the officers, who between them share a collective 113 years of
service with Toronto police, face 40 individual charges, including perjury,
theft, extortion and assault causing bodily harm.

All six also face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and five are
facing multiple counts of attempt to obstruct justice. Four other officers
have been named as "unindicted co-conspirators," Neily said.

The charges, the culmination of a controversy that has swirled over the
drug squad for more than four years, left Toronto police Chief Julian
Fantino pleading with the public to keep the faith.

Fantino said he was "saddened and disappointed" by the charges but called
the charges "isolated" and said they're not reflective of any general
corruption on the Toronto force.

Earlier in the day, police union lawyer Gary Clewley said the allegations
are "nothing more at this point," adding, "there isn't a lick of proof."

But whispers of corruption have plagued Toronto's central drug squad since
1999, when allegations first surfaced that officers were stealing from the
so-called "fink fund" used to pay off informants.