Ex-UN pair charged with conspiracy to sell military drones in Libya
MONTREAL — Two men who used to work for the United Nations in Montreal face criminal charges for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to sell Chinese attack drones to a Libyan armed group, and sanctioned oil to China.
Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, 61, appeared in a Montreal court on Tuesday after his arrest earlier in the day. He is charged with one count of conspiracy.
Police and prosecutors say the alleged conspiracy took place between 2018 and 2021, while Mhaouek was working at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency headquartered in Montreal.
“The conspiracy consisted of offering oil from Libya for sale that was from entities that are sanctioned by the United Nations. The oil was destined for the People’s Republic of China,” federal prosecutor Marie-Ève Moore told reporters at the Montreal courthouse.
Moore said Mhaouek’s alleged co-conspirator, Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh, 37, who also worked at ICAO at the time of the alleged offences, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy. One is related to the alleged scheme to sell Libyan oil to China; the other involved a plan to sell Chinese military equipment, including drones, to a Libyan group.
Sayeh remains on the run. An Interpol Red Notice — an alert sent to police around the world — and a Canada-wide warrant have been issued for his arrest, Moore said.
A third man is named in the charging document as a co-conspirator. Prosecutors declined to comment about why he has not been charged.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Charles Poirier said the alleged conspiracy involved the use of shell companies to sell Chinese military equipment — including large drones that can carry multiple missiles — to a Libyan armed group in violation of UN sanctions related to the Libyan civil war. A federal regulation gives the sanctions the force of law in Canada.
Poirier said the regulation prohibits anyone in Canada from supplying military equipment to any of the factions that were fighting in the Libyan conflict, or helping to finance those groups. The alleged conspiracy, he said, would have benefited Gen. Khalifa Hiftar, the leader of one of two main groups 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 the region.
Poirier said investigators have no indication that military equipment or crude oil ever reached their alleged final destinations, but if they had, Mhaouek and Sayeh stood to gain several million dollars a month in commissions.
“The theory behind the motivation is primarily financial,” he said. However, it would have also benefited China by allowing it to covertly support Hiftar’s faction and by giving the country prime access to Libyan oil.
Poirier said the investigation began in 2022 after the RCMP received what he described as “credible intelligence.”