Sandro Lisi, the associate of crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford who reportedly showed up at a crack house where Ford was filmed smoking crack cocaine in an attempt to collect the video, was arrested yesterday by the Toronto Police Department on drug charges.

While Lisi, 35, has no formal role in the Ford administration, he has informally acted as Ford's driver and been described by Ford as "a great guy and straight as an arrow." According to the Toronto Star, Lisi was one of the men who showed up at the home of Fabio Basso, another Ford friend, shortly after Gawker and the Toronto Star reported that Toronto crack dealers were shopping around a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine, seeking the video and the men who sold Ford crack on the night it was filmed.

As Gawker first reported, the video was filmed at Basso's home, which also served as the backdrop for a photograph, published by Gawker, of Ford with two Toronto men who were subsequently shot—one was killed—in a gangland-style shooting. Our source told us in June that the day after Gawker broke the news of the crack video, two men showed up at Basso's home demanding a copy of the video and told Basso that "he needed to get the kid who sold them the crack that night to come back to the house." When Basso couldn't deliver, the source said, one of the men returned several days later with a metal pipe and beat Basso and his girlfriend badly enough to put Basso in the hospital. The Toronto Police department subsequently confirmed that it was investigating an attack at Basso's address.

The Star reports that another man, Jamshid Bahrami, was also detained in association with Lisi's arrest. Lisi has been charged with "marijuana trafficking, possession of the proceeds of crime, possession of marijuana and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence"; Bahrami with "possession of cocaine, three counts of trafficking in marijuana and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence."

While the Star reported that Lisi showed up at Basso's house asking, “Where are the guys who made the video? You know where they are", it's unclear whether he was the same man who returned with a metal pipe.