The Toronto police squad investigating Mayor Rob Ford has zeroed in on video and audio recordings secretly made by Ford’s occasional driver, Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, on his iPhone.

The Etobicoke man, who is facing extortion charges over allegations he tried to retrieve the crack cocaine video featuring Ford, is known by a former associate as “the kind of fellow who likes to keep a record of what people say and do.”

So it will come as no surprise to those who know Lisi that an iPhone seized by police last fall contained electronic records of his interactions with people, including the mayor.

Those records, which include video and audio recordings, were stored either on Lisi’s phone or on iCloud, Apple’s data storage service, according to sources.

The Star has previously reported that detectives applied to an Ontario court for a search warrant to unlock Lisi’s iPhone and an “assistance order” to gain access to data connected to the phone that is housed with Apple Inc.

Both orders were granted last fall, after Lisi’s arrest, but it was only this past week that detectives got access. The data, including audio and video recordings, was obtained from Apple’s head office in Cupertino, Calif. It is possible that the police will require an additional search warrant to legally access all of the data on Lisi’s iPhone.

Lisi was asked for comment on this story. The Star called his current number Friday and, as in past requests for comment, the phone was answered by someone who appeared to listen to the Star’s questions, then hung up.

Meanwhile, the Star and other media are seeking access to a series of court orders — including the Apple assistance order and any new orders— at a March 5 hearing.

These court orders are documents prepared by police to obtain search warrant and other orders to access telephone, text and other information related to Ford and Lisi. Each document lays out specific information the police already know and is presented to a judge in hopes of getting permission to obtain more information.

There are seven new judicial requests, all of which have been granted by a judge, which news media organizations are seeking to have released, including the one related to Lisi’s iPhone and data stored both on the phone and iCloud.

Lisi is charged with trafficking marijuana and with extortion, over attempts to retrieve the notorious crack cocaine video that shows an impaired Mayor Ford making racially charged and homophobic statements.

Detectives are trying to determine if Ford’s friend, Lisi, acted on his own or in concert with anyone else, sources say. The police charges against Lisi allege he used “threats or violence or menaces” to demand that two alleged gang members turn over the video.

The relationship between Ford, 44, and Lisi, 35, is key to the investigation now being undertaken by a special squad of detectives, whose unit is called Project Brazen2.

As the Star reported last summer, Lisi and Ford have been close for the past two years. They have socialized, gone to hockey games together, and Lisi has sometimes driven Ford around, either in his own Ranger Rover or in Ford’s Cadillac Escalade.

Lisi has told three people interviewed by the Star that he, Lisi, has supplied drugs to Ford. The Star has been unable to independently confirm Lisi’s claims. Ford told a Toronto Sun columnist last August that Lisi is “straight as an arrow.”

Court records reveal that Lisi has a troubled past involving allegations of drugs and violence.

When he was convicted last year of threatening to kill a woman (a conviction he is currently appealing), Ford wrote a letter of reference on City of Toronto letterhead that was presented to court. It states that during the 2010 mayoralty election Lisi was an “exemplary member of my campaign team where he displayed exceptional leadership skills”.

Project Brazen2 detectives, once they became aware of Lisi in 2013, compiled extensive evidence of meetings between Ford and Lisi throughout the summer. According to police documents filed in court, Ford and Lisi often met during regular city hall business hours and held discussions in public parks, sometimes drinking while they chatted. They hung around in school yards and were seen together near an Esso gas station around the corner from Ford’s house in Etobicoke. Police also have filed in court evidence of a high number of telephone contacts between the men.

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It is not clear whether Lisi is cooperating with police. Lisi appears to still be close to Ford, and was seen with Ford on the evening last month that a visibly impaired Ford was videotaped at the Steak Queen restaurant. In that video, Ford speaks angrily of Chief Bill Blair, calling him a “----sucker” and complaining to other restaurant patrons of how an expensive police investigation chased him around “for five months,” and noting that he is a “straight-up guy.”

Two people who know Lisi well say surreptitiously videotaping people has long been part of Lisi’s regular practice.

The Lisi and Ford camp is concerned at what may be on Lisi’s iPhone and stored in his iCloud account, according to a source.