Yorkville condo was stash house used by Hells Angels for $5 million in cash: documents
CTV
A condo in the tiny Toronto neighbourhood of Yorkville was used as a stash house for upwards of $5 million in cash by a group of Hells Angels operating an underground gambling ring, and their neighbours may have had no idea, according to documents filed in court and obtained by CTV News.
A condo in the tiny Toronto neighbourhood of Yorkville was used as a stash house for upwards of $5 million in cash by a group of Hells Angels operating an underground gambling ring, and their neighbours may have had no idea, according to documents filed in court and obtained by CTV News.
Photos show multiple people carrying shopping bags of all shapes and sizes accessing the 10th-floor, two-bedroom condo in the luxury building — bags an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer alleges were not full of parcels from nearby elegant shops, but instead full of cash made by the gambling operation, which netted some $160 million in profit before it was shut down in 2019.
“Cash is king. These are not the kind of people who want an e-transfer,” said former Toronto detective Mark Mendelson in an interview.
People who are avoiding scrutiny by law enforcement tend to trade in cash because transactions leave no trace, Mendelson said, but a successful operation can create more cash than people know what to do with.
“You end up with this pitfall of cash,” Mendelson said. “You think of Scarface – he had cash in garbage bags. His biggest complaint: what do we do with all this cash? These guys are in the same position.”
The details about the stash house are included in records of police surveillance in Project Hobart that were filed last year in Toronto Superior Court as part of a civil forfeiture application to seize what authorities claim are ill-gotten gains from the sports betting operation.
The documents also detail how officers tracked millions in revenues to purchase several properties around southern Ontario that are now also a target for seizure.
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