2023-11-23 02:51:25
TORONTO: A former civilian member of Canada’s national police force has been found guilty of leaking intelligence to suspected criminals, a court has found. Cameron Ortiz, 51, was found guilty of leaking official secrets to organized crime.
Ortiz has denied all the allegations against him and claimed he was working undercover to prevent a serious threat to Canada. This is the first case to be tried in Canada since the new espionage law came into force.
Ortiz was arrested in 2019 on six counts, including violating national security laws. At the time of his arrest, Ortiz was serving as director general of the National Intelligence Coordination Center. Ortiz began his service with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 2007 as a civilian member of the force. Prosecutors said Ortiz used his position in 2015 to leak sensitive information to three members of an international money-laundering ring and a man named Vincent Ramos. The mobile security company Ramos ran had ties to drug traffickers and organized crime. The US authorities had earlier discovered that the members were also related.
Prosecutors said Ortiz demanded 27,429 Canadian dollars ($20,000) from Ramos in exchange for sharing information about police activities. Meanwhile, there is no evidence that Ortiz received the money. During the trial, Ortiz claimed he received a tip from an unnamed foreign intelligence agency in 2014.
Ortiz revealed that he began a covert mission to bolster national security by inducing underworld groups to adopt encrypted email services to protect classified information. He was working to counter a serious threat to Canada that could not be ignored, Ortiz’s lawyer said during closing arguments. Prosecutors said there was no record of his mission in RCMP archives.
English Summary:
Ex-RCMP intelligence executive guilty of leaking secrets after historic espionage trial
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