Police are ready to subpoena Mayor Rob Ford to testify as a witness in the extortion case of friend and accused drug dealer Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, the Star has learned.

Though a quiet meeting between Ford and lead investigator Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux was arranged on Thursday to serve the mayor, those plans were postponed after media reached out to Ford’s lawyer.

Criminal lawyer Dennis Morris later told the Star it’s not a matter of if the mayor will get notice now, but when.

“Basically if they want to subpoena the mayor, they’re going to, and it’s just a matter of where and when,” Morris said. “It’s not like you’re not willing to be subpoenaed, it just has to be the right time and place . . . It’s just like going on a date; if today doesn’t work, make it tomorrow.”

Morris wouldn’t comment on whether earlier plans had been cancelled or why.

Giroux has made no secret he wants a chance to question the mayor in connection with an ongoing investigation into his associates and the existence of a video showing Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Once served — if the Crown decides to call him to the witness stand — Ford is obligated to testify under oath at a preliminary hearing set to start March 2.

Whether or not Ford is still Toronto’s mayor after an election Oct. 27, he may still face a series of revealing questions about his time spent with members of the Dixon City Bloods gang, his relationship with Lisi, his own drug use and his involvement, if any, in the alleged efforts to recover the crack video.

If called, Ford will be forced to answer truthfully or risk being charged with perjury — a Criminal Code offence that prohibits lying on the stand and that is punishable by up to a maximum of 14 years in prison.

Lisi is accused of threatening two alleged gang members who police say were part of a group running guns and drugs through condo towers on Dixon Rd. in Etobicoke.

Liban Siyad and Mohamed Siad, two young men both charged in June during a series of raids that were the climax of the so-called Project Traveller investigation, are both named as the alleged victims.

As Traveller was wrapping up, Giroux was tasked with leading the investigation into Ford, what became known as Project Brazen 2.

According to police, the extortion allegedly occurred between May 16 and May 18 — in the days that followed reports by the Star and the Gawker website about the existence of the crack video.

Siad, the Star has previously reported, was trying to sell the video of Ford to media outlets through a broker.

According to police documents, Lisi’s calls to Siyad were captured on police intercepts, including an alleged death threat to members of the community if the video wasn’t returned.

“You’re f---ing dead and everyone on your block is dead,” Lisi said, according to the documents used to obtain a search warrant, the contents of which have not been tested in court. He also allegedly threatened to bring the “heat” on Dixon and “run through” their homes with the police.

The police document shows the calls Lisi made and received over the three-day period in question.

Just an hour after the Gawker article was posted on May 16, Lisi called Siyad twice, the police documents claim. He also called Fabio Basso, a Ford friend who lives at 15 Windsor Rd. — the house where police believe the crack video was recorded.

In total, Lisi called Siyad three times and Siad four times, speaking to them for a total time of almost four minutes.

Lisi also exchanged 13 calls with Ford. It’s unknown what was said on those calls because neither were subject to police wiretaps set up for Project Traveller.

This March, the Crown said the exact motive for Lisi’s alleged extortion attempts remains unclear.

Lisi’s upcoming preliminary trial — which is open to the public, but typically covered by a publication ban — may also be the venue for the crack video to be played for the first time.

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Police Chief Bill Blair famously told a news conference in October that police had recovered the deleted video from a hard drive seized during the Project Traveller raids. Ford, who had earlier denied smoking crack or the video’s existence, later admitted to smoking crack cocaine in one of his “drunken stupors.”

Lisi has been out on bail since November. He was later seen at the mayor’s side, including on video in January at Etobicoke restaurant Steak Queen, where Ford was recorded speaking about Blair in crude terms and cursing in Jamaican patois.

After returning from two months in a rehab facility, Ford said he had cut ties with past associates. His brother, Councillor Doug Ford told reporters the mayor was no longer speaking to Lisi.

Lisi’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for a week in March and another week mid-April.

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