York Regional Police's deputy chief Ryan Hogan reveals evidence from an investigation at the York Regional Police headquarters in Aurora, Ont., on Feb. 5.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
When organized crime investigators announced the takedown of an auto-theft ring stealing luxury vehicles from Toronto Pearson Airport 25 years ago, one name stuck out on the list of accused.
For years, Toronto Police Constable Andrew Kostorowski had allegedly been doing illegal computer checks for a tow-truck driver and a body shop owner involved with a criminal syndicate. The group, police said, were selling stolen cars and deliberately damaging others to defraud insurance companies. Constable Kostorowski pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit breach of trust in October, 2002.
In the years since, police officers have faced remarkably similar allegations in cities across Canada and the United States: Baltimore. Boston. Buffalo. Chicago. Detroit. New York. Miami. Ottawa. Toronto again – and then, Toronto again.
For decades, towing has shown to be a consistent thread in police corruption cases, as organized crime networks continue to infiltrate and exploit the fraud-rife industry, and pull officers into their web.
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When a large-scale police corruption probe called Project South was announced by York Regional Police last month, ensnaring seven Toronto officers and a retired constable, Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan said that one of the civilians charged alongside them has ties to the towing industry.
Elwyn Satanowsky, 34, held a towing licence in Toronto from 2012 to 2014, according to the city, after which it was cancelled and further applications (in 2015 and 2016) denied.
Deputy Chief Hogan alleged at the Project South news conference that Mr. Satanowsky, along with three other co-accused, sought and obtained confidential information from various Toronto officers to facilitate crimes.
Mr. Satanowsky is facing 12 charges, including for unlawful indirect use of a TPS computer, and for arranging and/or being party to shootings at three different homes. At least one of those addresses was linked to Alexander Vinogradsky, the main target of a previous York Region towing bust, who was gunned down in a parking lot in March, 2024.
Gary Vandenheuvel, president of the Professional Towing Association of Ontario and co-owner of Preferred Towing in Sarnia, Ont., says there are many honest people earning a living in the industry, but the nature of the work makes it vulnerable to infiltration by organized crime.Dax Melmer/The Globe and Mail
The charges against Mr. Satanowsky – who was denied bail Friday, after a hearing – have not yet been tested in court. His lawyer Sonya Shikhman declined to comment.
But the connection again appears to illustrate the central role that officers – and their access to information – have been found to play in schemes involving the towing industry.
“The opportunity presented when police officers arrive at an accident scene, and cars need to be towed, is an opportunity that criminals have exploited time and time again, whether it’s in New York City or elsewhere,” said Mark Lesko, a former acting United States attorney for Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y. Mr. Lesko oversaw a towing corruption case involving New York Police Department officers in 2021.
The most lucrative area of the industry is a segment known as collision towing or “chasing.” A car that has been involved in a crash will need repairs, and the driver might need a temporary rental car, or physical therapy, or a lawyer. As a result, a single crash can generate thousands in profits and it is an open secret within the industry that some of these peripheral businesses will pay to have business sent their way.
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“It’s big dollars,” Mr. Lesko said. “Often times organized crime is involved one way or the other. And obviously police officers are essential to completing the crime.”
In the case Mr. Lesko oversaw, NYPD officers were circumventing the department’s official tow-referral system and steering business directly toward their co-conspirators. They were also using the force’s computer databases to pull personal information about crash victims, which they then sold.
These schemes are ubiquitous within many large police forces, Mr. Lesko said. “It becomes cultural.”
In the NYPD case, when one of the officers retired, he recruited a replacement at his precinct to take over for him in the scheme.
“It’s easy money and it’s hard to detect,” Mr. Lesko said.
Toronto police service chief Myron Demkiw, left, is joined by York regional police chief Jim MacSween, centre, and YRP deputy chief Ryan Hogan to announce the results of ‘Project South,’ a lengthy investigation into organized crime and corruption.Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press
In and around Toronto, the towing industry has been plagued with violence and corruption for years, as companies compete for slices of the pie. In response to the tow-truck turf wars, police services launched a slew of towing-related special projects, which among dozens of arrests, netted criminal charges against 10 Ontario police officers.
TPS Constable Ronald Joseph faced a raft of corruption-related charges in 2020, after allegedly operating tow truck and rental car businesses on the side. The bulk of his charges were withdrawn in May, 2022, owing to court delays. He was found not guilty of five insurance fraud-related charges in December, 2023, and pleaded guilty to a separate count of fraud, in connection with a COVID benefits scam, in June, 2024. Toronto Police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said in mid-February that Constable Joseph is suspended from the service without pay, and the process to dismiss him is continuing.
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Nine other officers in the province – six from the Ontario Provincial Police, and three from Ottawa Police – were also charged with towing-related corruption in 2020.
Four of the OPP officers pleaded guilty to breach of trust, in relation to steering business toward specific towing operators. Another was acquitted, and the final officer, charged with breach of trust and secret commissions, is scheduled to go to trial this fall.
Corruption charges against two of the Ottawa Police officers were stayed in 2021, in exchange for their resignations from the force. Charges against the third were stayed in 2022, owing to court delays.
Ottawa Police and the OPP declined to speak with The Globe about what they’ve done to combat towing-related corruption among officers since those cases. A TPS spokesperson said in a statement that when it comes to tackling violence and corruption in towing, the force’s focus is on the industry itself.
A burned-out tow truck from Above Towing, sits in the parking lot of a funeral home in Richmond Hill, Ont. on Friday.J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
“While there have been instances involving police and the towing industry, our primary focus has been addressing the violence and organized criminal activity affecting that sector,” Ms. Sayer wrote in an e-mail. “We have devoted significant resources to dismantling the networks responsible for shootings, arsons, intimidation, and extortion.”
Gary Vandenheuvel, president of the Professional Towing Association of Ontario, stresses that there are many honest people earning a living in his industry. But he said the nature of the work has made it vulnerable to infiltration by organized crime.
Beyond the potential for fraud, tow trucks offer a convenient way to transport stolen vehicles in plain sight. They’re also an effective way to move drugs. For example, an operator could stash a brick of cocaine in the vehicle he’s pulling, and have plausible deniability if anybody finds it.
The Ontario government has implemented sweeping legislative changes to the industry in recent years. For example, tow operators are now licensed at a provincial level. And specific companies have been contracted to handle designated sections of the 400 Highways, where trucks used to race each other to the scene of a crash, even fist fighting or shooting each other for the jobs.
Mr. Vandenheuvel said this has greatly improved the system on the highways, but the problems have migrated into the cities, where contracts or rotation systems often don’t exist for collision towing.
Under the new provincial regulations, tow trucks are not allowed to show up unsolicited after a crash in Ontario. They must be called in by police or the driver themselves.
But in practice, a “chasing” system still exists, Mr. Vandenheuvel said, because police do not attend after every fender bender and the general public isn’t aware of the rules.
“If you stop that chasing model, there’s 90 per cent of your problem, probably, gone away,” Mr. Vandenheuvel said.