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Police executed search warrants at his Richview Cleaners and at the home Lisi, 35, shares with his parents.

At the cleaners, past the front counter and adjacent sewing machine, tangled blue and lavender dress shirts that were supposed to be sent to the wash were strewn across a shelf; receipts and scraps of paper littered an oriental rug in the back.

“I got stuck in the middle of something,” laments Mr. Bahrami. “My crime was having a close relationship with Sandro who was close to Mr. Rob Ford.”

Police charged Mr. Bahrami with three counts of trafficking marijuana, conspiracy to traffic, possession of cocaine, and possession of proceeds of crime, all accusations he rejects. Mr. Bahrami said he suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and has a license to produce and use marijuana for medical purposes.

“First of all they went through the whole store, they wreck up the whole place, they accuse me of running a drug business. They didn’t find anything. The judge, the day before yesterday, said this is a genuine business man, he has a family, and we have to keep his business running to support his family. If they had found anything here they would have locked up this door.”

Meanwhile, a police source confirmed to the National Post that a special squad has been formed to investigate the activities of Mayor Ford and his associates. It stems from information uncovered during the year-long Project Traveller investigation that targeted the Dixon City Bloods.