The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) claim to have foiled a plot hatched by diplomats posted at a United Nations body in Montreal to help China illegally export military drones to Libya. In exchange for millions of barrels of oil, the war machines were allegedly supplied to a group involved in the Libyan civil war. Along the way, the diplomats expected to make their fortune.
This is what the police force says, although the allegations have not yet been tested by the courts. On Tuesday, charges of conspiracy to violate arms export bans to Libya and to transact with sanctioned Libyan entities were brought at the Montreal courthouse against two former employees of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN body whose headquarters is in the city center of the Quebec metropolis.
“This is Chinese foreign interference in Libya, which is taking place from Montreal. There is a crime, which is to contravene the laws that we adopt to support the UN,” explained Sergeant Charles Poirier, spokesperson for the RCMP.
Diplomatic immunity lifted
Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, a 61-year-old resident of Sainte-Catherine, was arrested at his home and appeared by videoconference. He remains in custody at this time and is due back in court Friday. Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh, 37, is on the run. He is the subject of a red notice from the international police alliance Interpol.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RCMP
Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh is wanted by the authorities.
As both diplomats enjoyed functional diplomatic immunity, they were protected from arrest related to acts performed in the course of their work. In an extremely rare gesture, the RCMP requested and obtained the collaboration of ICAO to lift this immunity. “If they had not done so, the charges could not have been filed,” says Sergeant Poirier.
The international body confirmed its collaboration with the Canadian police investigation, which it describes as “thorough.” In a message sent to The Pressits spokespeople said the targeted employees left their jobs a few years ago.
“ICAO strongly condemns any act committed by individuals that is incompatible with the values of the Organization,” his email stated.
The indictment filed by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada specifies that a third accomplice allegedly participated in the plot. This is James Kuang Chi Wan, a former diplomat of Chinese origin stationed at ICAO. Police and Crown prosecutors have declined to say yet why he is not being charged.
The list of charges filed in court by the Crown on Tuesday specifies that the crimes took place between December 2018 and July 2021 in Quebec, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the People’s Republic of China.
Oil versus drones
According to the RCMP, the accused met in Montreal as part of their role at ICAO, and part of the plot was hatched in the organization’s premises. “Front companies were allegedly created to conceal the buyer and seller of Chinese military equipment. We are talking about drones with a fairly significant attack capacity in a military version which also came with a control platform,” explains Sergeant Charles Poirier.
“There was a second element to the plot, which was a plan to export crude oil from Libya and take it to China. Several million barrels of oil per month, over the long term. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sergeant Charles Poirier, RCMP spokesperson
If the agreement had materialized, the suspects would have benefited from several million dollars in commission per month.
Sergeant Charles Poirier, RCMP spokesperson
The drones were intended for the armed forces of General Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya supported by Russia, who was then confronting the Government of National Accord established in the capital Tripoli, in a bloody civil war.
PHOTO JON GAMBRELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Libyan General Khalifa Haftar
The theory of investigators from the RCMP Integrated National Security Team is that China was thereby seeking to support General Haftar.
Turkish drones against Chinese drones
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo, Quebec defense industry analyst, drone expert and correspondent in Europe for the specialized journal Defense Newspoints out that unmanned military flying machines were used extensively in the civil war in Libya.
“What was special about Libya was that both sides used and relied on drones to attack each other’s infrastructure and supply lines,” she observes.
General Haftar’s troops could count on Chinese drones whose operators were not officially confirmed. Several analysts have mentioned support from the United Arab Emirates to operate the devices. The Tripoli government, for its part, obtained the support of Turkish drones. The Haftar camp experienced success thanks to Chinese aircraft, but Turkey’s entry on the scene and its assistance to the opposing camp then made it possible to defeat the Chinese aircraft on several occasions, explains the specialist.
Mme Gosselin-Malo emphasizes that the main aircraft offered by China on the international defense market is the Wing Loong II, already sold to Pakistan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Chinese government is banking heavily on the export of this model. “The market is really starting to be huge,” says the expert.
However, she does not believe that a proposal to purchase these devices automatically means that a buyer becomes China’s ally.
“For them, the acquisition is not necessarily linked to political considerations, as it is for the United States,” she says.