Cameron Ortiz, who was found guilty Wednesday of violating Canada’s Secrets Act by a jury, was arrested while “on the verge” of handing over state secrets to a foreign group, the former RCMP officer said during a bail hearing in 2019. Crown prosecutor argued.
When RCMP officers raided Cameron Ortiz’s apartment in late August 2019, they were looking for clues about the leaking of internal police documents to criminal groups.
Their investigation quickly takes a turn into the dark world of international espionage when they analyze electronic equipment and documents seized at the residence of the National Police’s top intelligence analyst.
Several to-do lists police found in his apartment include donating blood, cleaning the apartment, working out, and paying for dental insurance, in addition to tasks related to what Ortiz called “projects.” Their daily activities were also described. Prosecutors said this was the name given to his plan to leak state secrets.
RCMP agents discovered 488 highly classified documents on his computer equipment.
According to information disclosed in court in fall 2019 (now available for public reporting for the first time), nearly all of these documents were recorded by Ortiz in his RCMP office between September 2018 and August 2019. It is said to have been printed in
Ortiz, a civilian with a doctorate in international relations, was the director of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Center in Ottawa at the time. He had access to Canada’s Top Secret Network (CTSN), a computer network used by the federal government to share classified information. CTSN stored information from Canada’s allies in Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing network that includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
At a bail hearing in October 2019, federal prosecutor Judy Kliwer alleged that Ortiz was in the final stages of a plan to pass state secrets to a “foreign entity.”
Ortiz was arrested by his RCMP colleagues on Sept. 12, 2019, before acting on that plan, the Crown said. During his bail hearing, Mr. Kriewer argued that had Mr. Ortiz carried out the plan, the consequences would have been catastrophic for the safety of Canada, its allies, and the agents on the ground.
“It looked like he had a loaded gun in his hand and was about to pull the trigger,” she said.
On Wednesday, a jury found Ortiz guilty of all charges against him.
In testimony in his own defense, Ortiz claimed that he was actually working on a secret mission from a foreign agency. Ortiz said the plan was to lure criminals to an encrypted email service so authorities could gather information about them.
Some charges were dropped in 2022
Ortiz said he sent information to police subjects to prove his “honesty.”
Now that his trial is over, CBC has been allowed to publish previously unreported allegations made against Ortiz during a bail hearing four years ago. Prior to the ruling, these allegations were subject to a publication ban.
This new set of charges, related to possible international espionage, was not raised at Ortiz’s trial and was never proven in court.
In fact, four charges against Ortiz related to alleged violations under Section 16 of the Information Security Act, which deals with communications with foreign and terrorist organizations, were dropped by the court in 2022.
In the decision, which was also subject to a publication ban until Wednesday, the court concluded that restrictions on the use of classified information at trial precluded Ortiz from presenting a full defense.
The ruling said Ortiz was preparing to claim he had collected sensitive information for presentations to RCMP leaders “on how to best respond to the growing threat from certain foreign entities.”
featured videosCameron Ortiz was a former RCMP chief intelligence officer. But now he is in custody on charges of divulging secrets to unauthorized people and planning further leaks. The Fifth Estate tells how his alleged crimes came to light, a remarkable story involving Mexican drug cartels, Australian biker gangs, gambling, money laundering and the world of encrypted telephones. The inside story of the story is told. It’s a story about a successful Vancouver company who made a fortune selling cell phones to the underworld, and an American who calls himself Robin Hood, but he ends up with a secret that is sold to the police. He brought the matter to the FBI with the idea of exposing him. The highest level of the RCMP.
Investigators were most concerned that one of his to-do lists included the need to “begin planning for first contact.” When RCMP searched his residence, Ortiz’s current to-do list included setting up an initial meeting at a restaurant on the third Thursday of September.
The Crown said the fact that Ortiz had been collecting business cards from “foreign officials” added to the concerns.
Although those charges were dropped, the charges shed new light on the case against the man who was a rising star in the RCMP until colleagues began to suspect he had betrayed him.
Ortiz joined the RCMP in 2006 after growing up in British Columbia. In 2015, Mr. Ortiz, using a false name, made an unusual offer to a British Columbia businessman named Vincent Ramos.
Ramos heads a company called Phantom Secure, which sells encrypted mobile phones to members of organized crime and has already come to the attention of police in several countries.
“You don’t know me. I have information that I believe you will find extremely valuable,” Ortiz wrote in an email under a pseudonym, calling his offer a simple “business “The above proposal,” he added.
In an email to Ramos, Ortiz identified himself as a hacker and said he had information that could be useful to Ramos.
“It’s not without risk, of course, but the risk-reward ratio will turn out to be more than acceptable,” he said.
Ortiz demanded $20,000 in exchange for confidential information in the hands of the RCMP.
He also willingly provided information to Ramos that the Crown said could have jeopardized the lives of undercover RCMP personnel who attempted to infiltrate Phantom Secure. Ortiz denied that allegation during his testimony and said he never released the undercover agent’s name.
“This is not a trick”
The Crown said Ortiz also provided members of a group involved in money laundering with information from police files, a CD-ROM containing samples of material at their disposal.
“This is not a trick, and as the attached documents make clear, I do not work for law enforcement or intelligence agencies. However, I have the ability to access a variety of information,” he said. I mentioned it in my paper. Communication with this group.
The jury heard there was no evidence that Mr Ortiz accepted money in exchange for confidential information.
RCMP became aware of the illegal contact with Ramos in 2018 when he was arrested in the United States and his electronic devices were seized and analyzed by police.
After seeing one of the documents in Ramos’ possession, RCMP investigators concluded there was a spy in their organization.
RCMP analysts quickly determined that Ortiz was one of the people who accessed sensitive information on Ramos’ computer.
A subsequent investigation led them to secretly enter Ortiz’s residence on August 26, 2019, where they began copying and analyzing information on Ortiz’s electronic devices.
Ortiz tried to make the documents untraceable, Crown said.
RCMP seized five laptops, three mobile phones, five portable hard drives, 10 memory sticks and several prepaid SIM cards from Ortiz’s apartment in Ottawa.
Although some of his computer tools were encrypted, at least one laptop could be accessed without a password, allowing RCMP experts to act quickly.
Prosecutors said investigators found 488 classified documents on the laptop under a folder called “Batman.”
Based on the dates of the documents, investigators concluded that they were printed primarily on weekends and holidays, when fewer co-workers would have been in the office to see Ortiz’s work. .
Prosecutors said Ortiz removed headers and footers from certain documents before converting them to PDF, making them untraceable.
“The only inference is that these documents were created for the purpose of sharing, conveying confidential information to those who might be interested,” Kriewer argued during the bail hearing.
“Given the nature of the documents… these are no longer documents directed at organized crime. These are all documents related to national security and of interest only to foreign companies.”
Kriewer said one of the “processed” documents was created late at night between September 8 and 9 and was placed in a folder called “First Meeting.”
be organized and meticulous
He added that the file is classified as “gamma” secret, meaning it is one of the most closely guarded secrets in Canada’s possession.
During the search, police discovered an interesting to-do list that showed Ortiz to be organized and methodical.
One of the lists associated with his “projects” listed a series of tasks, such as printing and scanning documents, installing software, and making backup copies of files.
One of his to-do lists spoke of the need to “start planning for first contact.” When RCMP searched his residence, their current to-do list included setting up an initial meeting at a restaurant on the third Thursday of September.
Kriewer said Ortiz was arrested three days after the second RCMP raid, when he was at a “critical stage” in the project and “on the brink” of a major betrayal. No information was provided at the bail hearing regarding the identity of the countries Ortiz may have had contact with.
“He is supposed to use these documents to conduct intelligence gathering and assist law enforcement in protecting Canadians from criminal activity and ensuring national security,” Kliwer said. “But he is going to selectively share these documents with disadvantaged populations.” [to] These interests. ”
He was released on bail in October 2019, despite the Crown’s insistence that Ortiz could either flee the country or find a way to pass on his secrets.
The decision was overturned by an appeals court a few days later, and Ortiz was detained for more than three years until the end of 2022.
In recent months, he has lived with many restrictions on his freedoms, including being barred from accessing electronic devices for purposes other than preparing for his trial.
During a bail hearing in 2019, he admitted that he was not particularly close to his parents, but it was only after his arrest that they learned that he had an estranged 17-year-old daughter with whom he provided child support. Ta.
The bail hearing also heard Ortiz was also responsible for the monthly payments on the $100,000 mortgage his parents took out on the condo to cover student loans.
Ortiz is scheduled to be sentenced in January. The Crown announced Wednesday that he would seek a sentence of at least 20 years.
