Shocking allegations of cops planting incriminating evidence and stealing luxury watches
during their raid on a lavish black market casino have just wrecked another anti-organized crime case
The Mob Reporter here with another bizarre case of cops seriously screwing up
something that was at first publicly bragged about as a significant piece of policing
It's disturbing and embarrassing stuff
Let me tell you about it
The original raid and arrests were announced with such fanfare
It looked like something out of a James Bond movie — a $10 million dollar, 53 room, 30,000
square foot mansion north of Toronto in Canada, surrounded by stonewalls and iron gates
The 2.6 acre property was patrolled by guard dogs and roving armed security guards
Inside, under the cathedral ceilings, were 10 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, professional grade
gambling equipment, and a lot of cash and guns. The guns and the stacks and stacks of cash were needed
to run a full-service underground casino. As guests enjoyed top shelf liquor and exotic food including
deer sinew soup and whole sharks fin. The place was called Mackenzie Number Five Club and
the invitation to its 2019 lunch was in Chinese. Investigators with York Regional Police organized
crime enforcement bureau arrived to break up the action a year later, with a small army of
officers in support. That was on July 23, 2020. Among those arrested was Wei Wei, a developer who came to
Canada from China more than a decade ago, and his ex-wife. The couple jointly owned the mansion. Also
arrested was their 25-year-old daughter. Each was charged with running an unlicensed gambling club
From the noisy announcement, a story which I documented in a video i'll link to here,
comes a disturbing development. Criminal charges were quietly dropped against three
alleged casino kingpins after defense lawyers found evidence of serious police misconduct. So
serious, in fact, that if proven, it would amount to criminal offences. Members of York Regional Police
appear to have stolen two watches belonging to Mr. Wei while executing a search warrant and appear to
have planted evidence, namely a gun holster, in a room associated with Mr. Wei while executing the
same search warrant. And the investigative team breached Mr. Wei's solicitor client privilege
in their execution of a subsequent search warrant, their lawyer's letter of complaint says
Wei's lawyers backed up their claims with a series of photos and videos taken from the police's own
investigation. They make a compelling case. Let's start with the wrist watches
For starters, they are inordinately expensive time pieces; one a Patek Philippe bought in Paris
is worth about $300,000. The other, a gold-faced Jaeger-LeCoultre,
bought in Hong Kong, is valued at over $150,000
That's nearly half a million bucks for two watches. Must be nice. They're eye-catching pieces
and apparently they caught someone's eye. When police raided the mansion they took video and
photos of the scene when they arrived. The police photos show the watches there in Wei's bedroom, the
Patek Philippe on the bedside table and the Jaeger- LeCoultre in the top drawer, according to the lawyers
After their search, when police were leaving, investigators took exit videos and photos — but
the watchers can no longer be seen. Investigators had seized some items from the bedroom as evidence,
including Wei's passport and cell phone, but the watches were not listed among them
Now when the watches weren't on the list of items that were seized and tagged their lawyers asked
for them back. The police apparently have no idea where they went. The cops searched the
evidence locker but came up empty-handed. York police "do not have the watches and they
cannot account for their disappearance during the search," the lawyers complain. A gun holster did the
opposite of the disappearing trick. It appeared 17 hours after photos show it wasn't there before
Police claim a gun holster was found in Wei's bedroom during a second search on July 24th
Photos from an earlier search, however, don't show a holster where they supposedly found it
Or anywhere else in the bedroom, in fact, according to the complaint
Wei's lawyers say there is only one conclusion — that holster was planted by police in an
apparent attempt to connect Mr. Wei to various firearms found in other rooms of the mansion
Now their last complaint was the easiest for the courts to deal with
It's right in their wheelhouse. When officers searched Wei's family home a week after they
raided the casino, they found legal documents, including Wei's retainer agreement with the
lawyers he hired to defend his family after the casino raid. Without any special court
authorization, the officers photographed the legal documents as part of their probe
That's a legal no-no in Canada, and in fact, many places around the world. What a client talks about
with their lawyers should remain confidential. In Canada it is considered a principle of
fundamental justice.
With such stark evidence of that breach, it was clear the case against Wei, his ex-wife
and his daughter, were tainted. The charges were dropped against all three of them
The allegations and theft and planting of evidence were sent to the chief of York
police by the prosecutors and an internal probe was launched. Wei's lawyers have no confidence
it can be adequately addressed internally. Their lawyers want an independent review
York Regional Police didn't deny the allegations when I asked them about this
But they did defend their probe. They said the case has not collapsed, per se,
Wei entered into a peace bond to be of good behavior and not to enter unlicensed gambling
establishments for two years. He also gave up his interest in the mansion and the $960,000
in bulk cash police found in his mansion during the raid. Plus, police
said, charges against the man they now say was their primary focus of the investigation —
a 32-year-old who was the alleged manager of the casino — still faces gambling and gun charges.
But that man's lawyer told me he expects those charges to be dropped now as well
because of the police tainting the evidence in the case. We'll see how that falls
This major probe by York police now lies in tatters. It's the second major
anti-organized crime operation to fall apart in recent months from the same police force
It was only in February that another major anti-mob probe collapsed. A huge operation aimed
at one of the major 'Ndrangheta Mafia clans in Canada, code named project Sindacato. That
investigation was the debut of a new anti-Mafia police unit by York Regional Police. The police
chief himself boasted of arresting a powerful mob bus and more than a dozen underlings of what
police called the Filomeni organized crime group, originally from Siderno, in Italy's Calabria region
Grabbing headlines in that case as well, police seized 27 homes worth $24 million, 23
high-end cars worth $3.5 million and about a million dollars in cash
along with a remarkable array of luxury goods. The alleged boss named by police lost his house,
two Ferrari sports cars and luxury goods, including a $6,000 bottle of Macallan single
malt Scotch and a $4,000 bottle of Louis XIII cognac. I document that case and its .
collapse in several videos here, I'll link to them in the description. They're really worth a watch
No pun intended. After that Mafia case fell apart — also because investigators monitored
communications with lawyers — police had to give all the stuff back. You know what was included
in the luxury goods they needed to return? Boxes of luxury watches
Thanks for watching