Canada's Tow Truck Mafia: How Organised Crime Infiltrated Police Databases
Canada's tow truck industry has become a battleground for organised crime. Murders, arson and extortion abound. And some Toronto police are helping to protect it.
On the evening of June 18, 2025, a masked man peered in through the window of a residential home near York, Ontario, before driving away. He was part of a hit squad scouting the house of a target, an active corrections officer at Toronto South Detention Centre.
The gunmen returned two days later. But as they drove near the house on June 20, law enforcement swooped in, forcing the suspects’ car off the road where it crashed into a police cruiser. Three people were arrested, including a man named Almar Heath and two minors.
York Regional Police had uncovered the conspiracy and stationed officers around the home. The prison guard was unharmed.
This foiled assassination attempt triggered Project South, an investigation that has exposed one of the most egregious criminal infiltrations of the police in modern Canadian history. The corruption network was tied to organized crime groups fighting for control of Toronto’s tow truck industry.
