UN workers in drone scheme?
2 charged in Libyan arms-for-oil conspiracy
MONTREAL — Two former United Nations employees in Montreal have been charged with participating in a conspiracy to sell Chinese-made drones that can carry multiple missiles, and other military equipment, in Libya, the RCMP said Tuesday.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Charles Poirier said the alleged offences occurred between 2018 and
2021, when the two men were working at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency headquartered in Montreal.
He said the two men — Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, 61, and Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh, 37 — violated UN sanctions related to the Libyan civil war.
The sanctions have the force of law in Canada by way of federal regulation.
“What we found is that through some shell companies, they attempted to sell this Chinese military equipment to Libya, which is a direct violation of the regulation,” Poirier said, adding that the military equipment included large drones that can carry multiple missiles.
Poirier said the regulation prohibits anyone in Canada from supplying military equipment to any of the factions that were fighting in the Libyan civil war, or helping to finance those groups. The alleged conspiracy, he said, would have benefited one of the two main factions in the conflict, which ended in 2020.
“The second part of this scheme was to export Libyan oil to China,” Poirier said. “So at the time, the oilfields were under the control of Gen. Khalifa Hiftar and the plan was to sell millions of drums of crude oil to China without anyone knowing about it.”
Hiftar’s self-styled Libyan
National Army fought against Libya’s Un-backed government and held much of the country’s east during the civil war. He continues to be a powerful figure in that region.
Poirier said Mhaouek, a Canadian citizen, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home in the Montreal suburb of Ste-catherine, Que.
Mhaouek’s alleged accomplice remains on the run.