Two Ottawa men have been charged in relation to suspicious activity online in the purchase of cannabis.

The Ontario Cannabis Store conducted its own internal investigation after finding suspicious activity involving the use of stolen credit cards to attempt to purchase multiple orders of cannabis.

OCS says they were able to stop most but not all of the orders and alerted the fraud unit at Ottawa Police to the activity.

Police took over soon after.

The two men were arrested as follows:

Hassan MOKDAD, 23 years-old, of Ottawa will appear in court on January 23, 2019. He is charged with:

Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence x1

Possess Property Obtained by Crime not exceeding $5000 x7

Ali ZEINEDDINE, 21 years-old, of Ottawa will appear in court on January 24, 2019. He is charged with:

Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence x1

Possess Property Obtained by Crime not exceeding $5000 x7



OCS sent the following statement to Ottawa Police on the issue.

The Ontario Cannabis Store's Resource Protection Department detected fraudulent activity related to stolen credit cards being used to attempt to purchase and purchase cannabis. Internal controls prevented the majority of transactions from being successfully completed and triggered the attention of the Resource Protection team. Following a thorough investigation, the OCS team alerted the Ottawa Police Service. OCS is committed to preventing cannabis from being obtained through criminal means and ensuring that youth and the community are protected.

Police continue to investigate.