The OPP is taking a back-seat role in the Project Brazen 2 probe following a dispute with Toronto police over who was the victim of extortion — the alleged drug dealer who made the video, or Mayor Rob Ford, who is pictured in the video.

Toronto detectives believe the man who made the video and his associate were the victims of an extortive attempt by Ford friend Alexander (Sandro) Lisi and possibly others to retrieve the embarrassing video of Ford smoking crack and making racially charged and homophobic comments.

The Ontario Provincial Police detective who was asked to oversee the case saw it differently, contending that the alleged drug dealer who filmed the one-minute video may have tried to extort money from Ford.

As a result, the much talked-about Project Brazen 2 probe has been mired in dispute over the past two weeks, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The disagreement led to the OPP, at least for now, removing itself from the probe.

In a short statement by OPP communications officer Sgt. Pierre Chamberland, the force said Wednesday that “the OPP has determined that there is no role for further investigation because to date there is no new information or evidence that has been provided to the OPP.”

Toronto Police Service spokesman Mark Pugash reported that the Brazen 2 investigation is ongoing. While saying he could not discuss details of the case, he noted that the course of investigation the Toronto detectives took has been validated by Crown attorneys and judges.

“The TPS investigation started more than a year ago, with a group of the most experienced and diligent investigators in Canada. They work very closely with an equally skilled team of Crown prosecutors. The case has been vetted by two judges. Its comprehensiveness is reinforced every time the courts release documents from the (search warrant documents),” Pugash told the Star.

One month ago, the OPP assumed oversight of the probe at the request of Toronto police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted to distance himself from it after personal attacks on his credibility were made by Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford.

Almost immediately, a difference of opinion arose between detectives at the two forces.

The Toronto police squad’s investigative theory, put forth by Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux, a veteran homicide investigator, has long been that Ford’s friend Lisi used threats to have two men — Mohamed Siad, who filmed the video, and Liban Siyad, a friend — turn over the video so that it would never see the light of day.

Those threats by Lisi were allegedly made in a two-day period beginning May 16, 2013, the day the existence of the video became public. Police have charged Lisi with extortion and drug trafficking and have executed search warrants on phones belonging to Lisi, Ford and others to determine whether anyone conspired with Lisi or whether he acted alone. Senior Crown attorneys have been assisting the Toronto detectives during the probe.

Enter OPP Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas, also a veteran detective. Nicholas, according to two sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, believed that Ford was the victim. His theory was that once the video was made, Siad may have attempted to extort money from Ford in return for handing over the video.

The Star has looked at all information (some public, some still under a publication ban) and found that both theories are possible and are not mutually exclusive.

Under the Toronto police theory, the information that led to their charging Lisi with extortion cannot be publicized because of a publication ban. The Star is fighting that ban in court.

Information that supports part of the OPP theory can be found in wiretap information already released. That information shows that a month after the filming of Ford at 15 Windsor Rd. (a bungalow the police refer to in court documents as a “crack house”) on Feb. 17, 2013, there is chatter on telephone calls about seeking money from Ford.

In one call police secretly recorded, Siad, who filmed the crack video, is involved in a discussion with a friend about a plan to sell the video to Ford. According to the wiretapped recording, Ford had already offered Siad $5,000 and a car for the video, something that Siad said he rejected.

The discussion on March 26 continued with Siad describing his plan to meet Ford “personally” and offer him the video for $150,000.

It is not known whether Siad ever approached Ford or, if he did, whether there was an implied threat that the video would be made public if Ford did not pay.

Less than a week after the March 26 call, Siad’s associate, Mohamed Farah, contacted the Star about the video and eventually offered it for sale. The Star, which saw the video at a meeting with Farah and Siad, did not purchase the video. Nobody knows what happened to the original cellphone video. Police obtained a copy of the video from a computer hard drive seized when Siad was arrested on drug and gun charges.

One person with knowledge of the dispute said the Toronto detectives, who have presented all of their information to senior Crown attorneys and to a judge (to obtain search warrants), were surprised that the OPP detective so quickly came to the conclusion that Toronto’s theory was wrong.

“Nobody understands how the OPP came up with this. The Toronto police don’t know where this is coming from,” said a source with knowledge of the Toronto police involvement.

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OPP spokesman Chamberland said he could not respond to the Star’s questions about the dispute. “We are not going to get into the weeds about this,” he said.

Meanwhile, the OPP, which has been tasked with numerous high-profile probes, is continuing its investigation of the email deletion scandal at Queen’s Park involving cancelled gas-fired power plants, and is entering its third year of an investigation into the ORNGE air ambulance scandal.

As to OPP involvement in the Ford-related probe, Chamberland said “if additional investigation is required, then the OPP may assume a major case management role, if asked to do so.” He said the OPP was to be involved only if “new investigative information” came into the hands of the Toronto police, and he said none has been provided.