Prosecutors say detective constable Craig Ruthowsky had a pay-for-protection scheme with a local drug dealer, that drug dealer was on the stand today and the jury heard a conversation he had with the accused.

They heard nine conversations recorded by Toronto police in 2015 as part of project pharaoh wire taps.  The first call was a panicked driver, who had just picked up 2 kilos of cocaine from a supplier in the Sherway Gardens mall parking lot. He says he went to get a burger and when he came back he saw mall cops around the Taurus, the broken passenger window and that the secret drug stash box was broken open. The cocaine was gone.

“Somebody (expletive) knew about that (expletive) bro… I didn’t do nothing wrong bro. I’m so (expletive) scared right now dog… they broke into it in broad daylight bro broad (expletive) daylight man.”

Two days later, a partner drug dealer reached out to his friend on the police force, Craig Ruthowsky. He wanted to know if police could have seized drugs anonymously in this way, Ruthowsky told him they could. He explained a part six general drug warrant.

“The reason they do it, is so they don’t know it’s the police,” Ruthowsky told the dealer. “Hamilton Police don’t do operations that big, but it could be Toronto Police looking to arrest a large swath of the drug subculture.” That turned out to be the case.

The court then heard a few more wiretapped phone calls between the dealers after the call with Ruthowsky. After speaking to the officer, they are pretty convinced that police were behind the missing drugs from the Taurus stash box at Sherway Gardens Mall.

The dealer, whose name is protected by a publication ban, is expected to be back on the stand tomorrow.