This is part three of a four-part investigative series by CTV W5 into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry. W5 correspondent Jon Woodward and producer Joseph Loiero look into allegations the industry is rife with organized crime activity. Toronto-area police agencies linked a rash of assaults and arsons to a turf war between rival organized crime groups hoping to assert control over the surprisingly lucrative clothing donation industry, W5 has learned.
And those allegations may only be the tip of the iceberg of what court records and interviews show what could amount to a pattern of violence among some players in the industry that has even caught charities in the middle. “The job is already hard enough as it is, and it just got 10 times harder because we had to deal with the vandalism and the turf war,” said Sylvia Krampelj of the Kidney Foundation of Canada. Sylvia Krampelj, Managing Director of Kidney Clothes, speaks with W5's Jon Woodward in February 2024.
Krampelj says her charity's bins were vandalized, stolen and even had feces left in them by private operators trying to take over bin territory (CTV W5 / Jerry Vienneau) Krampelj said her organization raises about a million dollars a year from clothes that are donated to her through clothing donation bins, and then either resold individually or in bulk. And she says when others wanted a piece of their revenue, they targeted those Kidney Foundation clothing donation bins. “We had peop.
