A new report has surfaced that an alleged video of conservative Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine exists and is being sold for six figures to the highest bidder. The anonymous owner of the tape of Ford smoking crack claims it was filmed within the last six months. He also provided a photo of Ford allegedly in the neighborhood he purchased and smoked crack in.

The man standing next to him in the photo, Anthony Smith, is a 21-year-old college student who was killed two months ago in a gangland-style shooting outside a Toronto nightclub. Gawker reporter John Cook traveled to Toronto to observe the video and wrote that it showed Ford lighting up a crack pipe inside a house and inhaling. He described the Toronto mayor as "red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath."

The owner of the tape reportedly rejected a $40,000 offer for the tape from a Canadian news organization, believing he can collect at least $100,000 for it. The owner will also reportedly try to leave the Toronto area after selling the tape due to fears it will no longer be safe for him to stay. Cook claims that CNN contacted Ford's office about the tape and his attorney Dennis Morris fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Gawker.

"Mayor Ford denies [this] took place,and if such posting occurs,it is false and defamatory,and you will be held legally accountable. In reference to the photo,you wish to publish, Mayor Ford has his photo taken daily, sometimes with others," wrote Morris.

In January 1990, former mayor of Washington D.C. Marion Barry was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room and arrested by the FBI on drug charges. After serving six months in a federal prison, he was elected to the D.C. city council in 1992 and ultimately returned to the mayoralty in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.