Toronto police officer who pleaded guilty in Project South probe gets conditional discharge

Elias Mouawad, one of the Toronto police officers arrested in connection with Project South – a sweeping police corruption and organized crime probe – has been handed a conditional discharge.

Mouawad, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use of a computer last month. A charge of breach of trust was withdrawn.

A conditional discharge means that Mouawad will not have a criminal conviction if the conditions of his probation are met.

Superior Justice Catherine Rhinelander sentenced Mouawad to one-year probation and 100 hours of community service Monday. She said Mouawad must have no contact with Daljit Singh and Brian Da Costa, who were also arrested in the Project South probe.

“This offence represents a serious lapse of judgement rather than an entrenched behavior,” said Rhinelander.

Although the breach-of-trust charge was withdrawn, Rhinelander said Mouawad’s unauthorized database search nevertheless represented a breach of the trust placed in police officers.

“There was a time where conduct of this nature may have been just addressed primarily through internal disciplinary proceedings or employment consequences but that is no longer sufficient in every case. … Now, criminal sanctions may be required to adequately denounce such conduct and disrespect for the law and to deter others who may be tempted to commit similar conduct,” said Rhinelander.

Mouawad, who had been working for Toronto police for a year and a half when he was arrested in February, remains suspended without pay. He must now face a hearing before the Toronto police’s professional standards tribunal, which will decide what a fit penalty will be.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Mouawad conducted an unauthorized licence-plate query for Singh on Jan. 19, 2026. Mouawad was working at 11 Division at the time.

Singh is charged with unauthorized use of a computer in the Project South probe.

The facts state that beginning in June 2025, investigators with York Regional Police began the Project South investigation, targeting allegations of police corruption including the alleged leaking of information from Const. Timothy Barnhardt to criminal networks.

It is alleged that Da Costa, an alleged large scale drug trafficker, regularly bribed Barnhardt to obtain confidential information.

Several of the people who were the target of the queries were later the victims of the alleged violent offences including targeted shootings and attempted murder. The victim of the attempted murder was a corrections officer at the Toronto South Detention Centre.

Police got a search warrant to do an audio intercept on Da Costa, Barnhardt and Singh. Singh reportedly had ties to Da Costa, Crown prosecutor Samuel Walker told court at the guilty plea last month.

Walker said that Singh, who had been Mouawad’s boss at a security company where he worked before joining police, was overheard on the audio intercept asking Mouawad to run a license plate for “his boy.”

It was later revealed that Singh was referring to Da Costa.

The facts state Mouawad believed when Singh was referring to “his boy,” he thought he was referring to an associate from the security company and did not believe it was related to any criminality.

The facts state that after Mouawad told Singh that the license plate was for a Chevrolet from a rental company, Singh handed the information over to Da Costa.

Da Costa later met with a male in a black Chevy Tahoe and boarded the passenger seat for approximately 45 minutes. That person, who was unidentified, has been listed in historical RCMP drug investigations.

The specific reason for the license plate query remains unknown.

Rhinelander said in handing down her reasons for sentence that Mouawad, when interviewed by police after his arrest on Feb. 4, said he believed he was running the plate for benign purposes and thought the person that Singh referred to as “his boy” was someone other than Da Costa.

When shown a photo of Da Costa by police, Mouawad said he recognized him because he had a physical altercation with him when he worked as a security guard but had not seen him since.

Rhinelander noted that Mouawad has taken responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty, cooperated with investigators, expressed remorse and did not financially benefit from the database query.

She also noted that he has also suffered substantial collateral consequences through the media coverage of case, saying he was suspended without pay and his future with the TPS remains uncertain.

After the sentence was delivered, Mouawad’s parents were emotional as they hugged their son, clearly relieved.

After court, Mouawad’s lawyers Peter Brauti and Alexa Banister-Thompson spoke about the sentence.

“He got a discharge, the Crown was asking for house arrest. There’s a big difference between those two sentences. Certainly, there’s a big difference for him employment wise. He’s just relieved the criminal part is over,” Brauti said.

“He was somebody who really shouldn’t have been included in Project South. He wasn’t engaged in any of that serious misconduct they’ve alleged in that bigger file. But he got caught up in it. He was a small fish in what’s clearly a big case,” added Brauti.

A date for Mouawad’s police tribunal hearing has yet to be set.