Vulnerabilities in Toronto police’s “dated” drug evidence storage system meant thefts by officers “may have occurred” but gone undetected, according to a never-before-seen report from the Ontario Provincial Police — the result of an investigation into a veteran cop who repeatedly stole opioids from police stations across the city.
Findings of the confidential report were made public — albeit in a heavily redacted form — on Friday inside a downtown courtroom, where concerns about the security of Toronto police drug evidence have taken centre stage in an ongoing drug trial stemming from “Project Sunder,” a massive 2020 anti-gang takedown that resulted in hundreds of gun and drug charges and over 100 arrests.
Drug tampering by an officer in the case has already affected at least five prosecutions. Charges against two Project Sunder accused were suddenly dropped last month one day after ex-cop Lorenzino Censoni testified about how he stole drug evidence, then had a near-fatal overdose not far from the police station.
Last week, three remaining co-accused argued their charges, too, should be stayed or the evidence against them tossed due to police misconduct that violated their Charter rights. A joint court application makes allegations of “a serious problem” in Toronto police’s drug-security apparatus.
“The Toronto police took inadequate actions towards security during a period in 2020 and 2021, when it came to light that there were a wide variety of thefts from that locker system,” defence lawyer David Heath told the court Friday, summarizing arguments he’s making alongside lawyers Kabir Sharma and George Gray.
The case has compelled Toronto police to hand over internal documents detailing how it handled Censoni’s theft and those of Paul Worden, a veteran homicide cop who stole drugs “at least” 27 times in the span of three years, according to an internal memo.
Worden, who has said he became addicted to opioids after a work-related injury, stole drug evidence without detection by taking advantage of investigative privileges that allowed him to view the contents of all drugs held across the city via Toronto police’s “divisional locker management system,” an internal network. He then drove to the divisions and, using his warrant card, entered the lockers and took the drugs.
Unlike Censoni — who was charged by Toronto police and convicted of unlawful possession of fentanyl — Worden was never criminally charged, something former police chief James Ramer later admitted was a mistake.
Shortly after Worden’s thefts were discovered, Toronto police asked the OPP to investigate the impact on criminal cases and identify weaknesses in the drug locker management system. The OPP produced a 50-page report on their findings, but Toronto police have said the document would not be made public, citing privacy concerns.
According to a version of the report entered into evidence Friday — approximately 90 per cent of which is redacted — the OPP investigators found a “dated” locker system that needed greater restrictions on officer use “to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
“Similar misuses could and may have occurred with other officers/civilians,” who had similar privileges to Worden, namely the ability to enter drug lockers managed by another cop, the report said.
The system was last updated and implemented in 1998, the report said.
A site visit by the OPP to Toronto police’s 31 Division — the station where both Censoni and Worden had stolen drugs — raised health, safety and cleanliness issues, the report added.
Evidence bags were “scattered on the floor,” processing tables contained fingerprint dust and “there was no indication of a dedicated area specifically used for packaging fentanyl, thereby increasing likelihood of contamination/exposure,” the report found.
The OPP made a series of recommendations to address drug locker security within Toronto police, including eliminating the ability for staff to view the contents of all drug lockers citywide. That feature was “clearly the reason Worden was able to successfully carry out these thefts undetected since 2019,” the OPP report said.
Court heard Toronto police struck up a working group to address problems within the locker storage system and that many of the changes recommended by the report had been made, said Abel Da Silva, a civilian supervisor with the force’s property management system.
Those changes include the creation of an internal fail-safe system that flags when officers make multiple attempts to enter a locker managed by another cop; regular audits of the system; and the installation of security cameras in every locker, Da Silva said. At the time of the OPP review, just six of the city’s 17 police divisions had cameras.
“The team has determined that all actions have been taken to mitigate the risks identified in the recommendations wherever possible,” reads a status report from the working group, dated April 17, 2023.
Similar recommendations were made in an internal memo authored by Det. Sgt. Rob North, the professional standards officer who became an expert in how his colleagues were stealing drug evidence as lead investigator on the Censoni and Worden probes.
Taking the stand, North, who was just three days into his new role when Censoni overdosed, detailed his probe’s recommendations but pushed back on the notion that he’d uncovered serious flaws in the drug locker system. They were, rather, opportunities to improve, he said.
Defence counsel have argued the sheer number of thefts that went undetected is cause for alarm.
Asked about the lack of charges laid against Worden, North said he “100 per cent” agreed the officer should have faced criminal consequences.
“In fact, although I wouldn’t have taken pleasure in it, I absolutely believe Det. Worden should have been arrested and I’m the one who would have arrested him,” North said.
Multiple large Toronto police probes have collapsed in court or ended in acquittal in recent months, including some in which police misconduct was cited. Last month, an Ontario judge stayed drug trafficking charges against a self-admitted cocaine dealer after finding Toronto police stole $6,000 from the drug dealer’s apartment. Charges were also suddenly stayed last month in Project Brisa, a large international drug trafficking case, amid allegations that officers misled the court, though prosecutors provided no reasons.
In April, when asked about the acquittals in the Project Sunder case, a spokesperson for the Toronto police said the outcome would “be reviewed and the appropriate action taken,” but noted: “It is one of hundreds of cases put before the courts, the majority of which proceed without issue.”
The trial continues Monday.
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