CSIS and Toronto police believe Canadian politicians exposed to PRC blackmail in underground casino: Sources
YRP allegedly captured digital evidence from casino network tied to "Team Trudeau" fundraising and election interference investigations
During the pandemic Canadians were awed by images of heavily armed tactical officers raiding 5 Decourcy Court, a $10-million, 53-room villa in Markham, Ont. stacked with deadly weapons and over a million in cash, the proceeds of an opulent “palace” offering spa and gambling pleasures to wealthy clients, according to York Regional Police (YRP).
“The money moving through these underground casinos leads to huge profits for criminals that fund other ventures such as prostitution and drug trafficking,” YRP stated in September 2020, adding detectives believed patrons received brothel service inside the 20,000-square-foot, marble-floored mansion.
In a journalistic probe including interviews with numerous Canadian intelligence, law enforcement and diaspora sources, The Bureau has discovered aside from casino crimes at 5 Decourcy, CSIS investigators suspected the gambling haven functioned with Chinese intelligence to capture Canadian politicians in Beijing’s clandestine election-interference networks.
Following YRP’s July 2020 night raid on 5 Decourcy, while detectives pursued illegal casino and weapons charges against 18 suspects, officers also reached out to CSIS investigators with stunning information.
They said that digital video evidence seized from 5 Decourcy’s owner, a politically-connected Toronto real estate developer from China’s Anhui province, revealed that local politicians could have been recorded in compromising sexual acts.
“CSIS was aware through human sources that Canadian politicians were at the underground casino,” a senior intelligence source said. “Our major concern was the high likelihood that Canadian politicians had been exposed to blackmail by Chinese Communist Party agents. We had reasonable grounds to believe that digital evidence would show this concern.”
CSIS investigators in Toronto had to write a warrant to obtain YRP’s evidence, according to sources, because in Canada’s legal system, police and intelligence agencies cannot share sensitive information without judicial approvals.