MONTREAL– Two former United Nations employees in Montreal have been charged with participating in a conspiracy to sell Chinese-made drones and other military equipment in Libya, Canadian police said Tuesday.
RCMP spokesman Sergeant Charles Poirier said the alleged crimes occurred between 2018 and 2021, when the two men worked at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency based in Montreal.
Police identified the two men as Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, 61, and Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh, 37. Poirer said they violated U.N. sanctions related to the civil war in Libya. The sanctions have the force of law in Canada under federal regulation.
“What we found is that through some shell companies they tried 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 fought in the Libyan civil war, or from helping to finance those groups. The alleged conspiracy, she said, would have benefited one of the two main factions in the conflict, which ended in 2020.
“The second part of this plan was to export Libyan oil to China,” Poirier said. “So at that time, the oil fields were under the control of General Khalifa Hifter and the plan was to sell millions of barrels of crude oil to China without anyone knowing.”
Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army fought against Libya’s UN-backed government and controlled much of the east of the country during the civil war; he remains 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, Quebec, and was scheduled to appear in a Montreal court later that day.
Mhaouek’s alleged accomplice remains at large. An Interpol Red Notice (an alert sent to police around the world) and a Canada-wide arrest warrant were issued for Sayeh’s arrest.
Poirier said investigators have no indication that the military equipment or crude oil ever reached their supposed final destinations, but he said that if they had, the two co-conspirators could earn several million dollars in commissions.
“The theory behind the motivation is primarily financial,” he said. However, it would also have benefited China by allowing it to covertly support Hifter’s faction and give the country privileged access to Libyan oil.
Poirier said the investigation began in 2022 after the RCMP received what he described as “credible intelligence.”
Both men had diplomatic immunity due to their work with the UN. The ICAO had to waive its immunity before the two men could be charged.
The UN organisation, which sets international aviation standards, has been assisting the police investigation.
“There is no indication that ICAO was aware of the conspiracy until we approached them,” Poirier said.
Police do not know where Sayeh, a Libyan national, may be.
“It could be in Libya, but with the level of influence and networks these men had working at ICAO, it could be anywhere,” Poirier said.
The U.N. civil aviation agency said in an emailed statement that it is committed to upholding Canadian laws, U.N. standards and its own code of ethics.
“ICAO is cooperating fully with the RCMP’s investigation of the individuals involved in the complaint, who left the organization several years ago,” the agency said. “ICAO strongly condemns any actions by individuals that are incompatible with the organization’s values.”