Another officer charged in Project South corruption probe pleads guilty

A Toronto police officer charged in the Project South corruption investigation has pleaded guilty, becoming the second to do so.

Const. Elias Mouawad, one of eight current and former Toronto police officers arrested in the probe, entered his plea at a downtown Toronto court Monday morning.

Mouawad pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use of a computer. When he was arrested in February, he was also charged with breach of public trust.

Court heard Mouawad was asked by a former employer, Daljit Singh, to run a search for a license plate.

Mouawad, 24, worked as a security guard at a company owned by Singh before becoming an officer. Singh was also arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a computer in Project South.

Mouawad had been a member of Toronto police for a year-and-a-half when Singh made the request, said Crown prosecutor Samuel Walker, citing the agreed statement of facts.

Singh had reported ties to Brian Da Costa, a major figure in the Project South probe, Walker told court.

Mouawad and Singh spoke on Jan. 17, and two days later, Singh reportedly asked Mouawad for the plate, saying it was for “his boy.”

Mouawad never learned who the inquiry was for but ran the search on Jan. 19. He provided the results to Singh because he had been a “caring boss” and believed the request wasn’t connected to any form of criminality, Walker said.

Mouawad is not alleged to have conducted other unlawful queries, and Walker said there is no evidence Mouawad intended to engage in future misconduct.

He added there wasn’t evidence to dispute Mouawad’s assertion in his police interview that he was remorseful for his conduct, vowing to never to engage in such a conduct again.

Project South began in June 2025 after a high-ranking employee at the Toronto South Detention Centre was identified as the target of an alleged attempted hit. The probe also has alleged links to Ryan Wedding’s apparent drug ring, an alleged gun-for-hire network and illegal dispensaries.

York Regional Police wrote in a recent, partially unsealed court document seeking to obtain a search warrant that the conduct by some officers “demonstrates a broader pattern of corruption, misuse of police authority, and facilitation of criminal activity.”

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As part of the investigation, it’s alleged Const. Timothy Barnhardt and other Toronto police officers tapped into unauthorized information.

Mouawad’s lawyer, Peter Brauti, previously told Global News his client had asked to plead guilty immediately after he was charged.

He said Mouawad’s attempts were unsuccessful because the Crown wasn’t ready to take a plea. The Crown told the court the issue didn’t relate to their office or the initial delay in the plea, but that things were rapidly unfolding.

Brauti has said his client felt he had been wrongly swept up in Project South.

“When information was released to the press, it made our client appear as if he was part of very, very serious conduct that has been alleged in Project South, when that is not the case,” he said.

“This is an officer who did a single check, unauthorized, which is unrelated to all of these allegations of drug dealing, corruption, attempted murder, all that. It is a completely separate issue.”

He added Mouawad had been “under this cloud” after Project South and that the public had not been given a “true picture” about his “relatively minor” misconduct.

Walker told court Monday the Crown is asking for Mouawad to spend two months under house arrest and two months under curfew. That sentence would be a “clear message of denunciation and deterrence for leaking of confidential information by a police officer,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brauti is asking for a conditional discharge given Mouawad was “nothing short of an exemplary police officer” who had made the most arrests during his first year at his division.

A conditional discharge includes a finding of guilt, but no criminal record is registered as long as a set of conditions is followed.

Mouawad is the second officer arrested to plead guilty.

In July, former police const. Derek McCormick pleaded guilty to two charges: theft under $5,000 for stealing a cellphone and breach of trust by stealing “found property.” He was initially charged with four counts of theft under $5,000, one count of breach of the trust by a public officer and another count of obstruction of justice.

At the time, York Regional Police alleged his involvement in Project South centred on his participation in the theft of personal property from a police facility. The personal property allegedly included driver’s licences, health cards and passports. A “substantial amount” of it was recovered.

McCormick resigned as a police officer earlier this year, a police spokesperson previously told Global News.

— with files from Catherine McDonald