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The Post confirmed that homicide investigators 10 days ago interviewed Mr. Towhey and Mr. Price, who is a longtime Ford family friend. But sources inside and outside of the mayor’s office on Tuesday clashed on the contents of those discussions.

The source in the mayor’s office said police interviewed Mr. Price about drug dealing in a Dixon Road building.

According to the source, an anonymous caller to the mayor’s office complained about drug dealing at 320 Dixon Rd. The source said that, in accordance with protocol, the tip was passed up to Mark Towhey, then the mayor’s chief of staff.

However, another source said that on Friday, May 17, Mr. Towhey got a call from Mr. Price, who wanted to know what would happen if he had learned the location of the alleged crack video.

According to this source, Mr. Price then went on to say that, through his own “investigation,” sources had told him the address and the apartment number of a unit where Somali men had the alleged video, and that the owners had been trying to figure out a way to make money off it. Mr. Towhey is said to have told him they “sure as hell are not going in there to get this f—ing thing.” According to the source, Mr. Price said his tipster had also suggested that Anthony Smith, who was gunned down in March, was killed to obtain the video. Mr. Smith is pictured in a photograph, provided by the alleged sellers of the video, with his arm around Mayor Ford.

Realizing that the information could potentially be linked to a homicide, Mr. Towhey called the police. By the time he met with detectives on Saturday afternoon, he had come to learn the alleged address of the purported video — 320 Dixon Rd. — and gave investigators that information as well.