Two Toronto police officers engaged in racial profiling when they stopped a 26-year-old black man in his car, lying that he had ran a red light to justify the arrest, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled.

Madam Justice Frances Kiteley excluded the evidence of marijuana and cocaine seized from the car of Irshad Ahmed a year ago Wednesday. She acquitted him of possession of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking and possession of marijuana.

The judge excluded more than 500 grams of cocaine, which was found under the passenger seat, due to the Charter violation for an unlawful detention.

"The police had no lawful basis to pull Mr. Ahmed over, demand he get out of the car ... detain him or to search him or his car," stated Kiteley in her Wednesday ruling.

She found Toronto police officers Justyn Humeniuk and Ryan Willmer "lied" about the red light infraction.

Ahmed's lawyer, Gary Grill, said racial profiling is rampant and his client was "pulled over 25 times" in recent years.

"This truly represents the tip of the iceberg of racial profiling. There are hundreds of instances that go unreported," said Grill.

"My client has been in custody for a year and this is completely intolerable.

"They lied about the red light to camouflage the real reason they pulled over Ahmed -- because he is black."

Toronto Police Services spokesman Mark Pugash took issue with Grill's assertion that racial profiling was widespread.

"That's simply not the case," said Pugash. "Chief Bill Blair, on his first day in office, accepted racial profiling exists but he also made it clear it was unacceptable and where it occurs, it will be dealt with."

The service has made huge strides through improved race relations training for its officers, he said. The racial make-up of this service has changed at an unprecedented degree in recent years, said Pugash.

Grill said he "looks forward to these officers being dealt with for racial profiling as promised by Chief Blair."

This is the second time in the past two years that police were criticized for their handling of Ahmed, who has an extensive criminal record. Last year, Justice William Bassel ruled that police used excessive force when Ahmed was Tasered during a February 2006 arrest in the Entertainment District.

The officers were found to be untruthful in denying making threats against Ahmed that were captured on audiotape on Grill's voice-mail.