2 former UN employees charged in conspiracy to sell military equipment in Libya

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 Sgt. Charles Poirier said the alleged offenses occurred between 2018 and 2021, when the two men were working at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency headquartered 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 Libyan civil war. The sanctions have the force of law in Canada by way of federal regulation.

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"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 oil fields were under the control of Gen. Khalifa Hifter and the plan was to sell millions of drums of crude oil to China without anyone knowing about it."

Hifter's self-styled Libyan National Army fought against Libya’s U.N.-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., and was scheduled to appear in a Montreal court later in the day.

Mhaouek’s alleged accomplice 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 Sayeh’s arrest.

Poirier said investigators have no indication that military equipment or crude oil ever reached their alleged final destinations, but he said if they had, the two co-conspirators stood to gain several million dollars 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 Hifter'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."

Both men had diplomatic immunity due to their work with the U.N. Their immunity had to be waived by ICAO before the two men could be charged.

The U.N. organization, which sets international aviation standards, has been collaborating with the police investigation.

"There’s no indication that ICAO was aware of the conspiracy until they were approached by us," Poirier said.

Police don’t know where Sayeh, a Libyan national, may be.

"He could be in Libya, but with the level of influence and the networking that these men had working at ICAO, he could be anywhere," Poirier said.

The UN’s civil aviation agency said in an emailed statement that it is committed to upholding Canadian laws, U.N. standards and its own ethics code.

"ICAO is fully cooperating with the RCMP investigation of the individuals involved in the complaint, who left the organization a number of years ago," the agency said. "ICAO strongly condemns any actions of individuals that are inconsistent with the organization’s values."