Dec 6, 2011 – 11:23 PM ET | Last Updated: Dec 7, 2011 5:10 PM ET
After Libyans turned against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in February, his playboy son Saadi made plans to flee to a Mexican beach resort whose celebrity visitors include Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.
Although the United Nations had frozen Saadi Gaddafi’s assets and banned him from crossing borders because of his close ties to the Libyan dictatorship, a multi-million-dollar refuge awaited him in Punta Mita, a posh development near Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
To get him there, a Canadian company, Can/Aust Security and Investigations International, approached private security contractors in Ontario, offering $1,000-a-day to join the team that would pick up the 38-year-old Gaddafi and fly him, his wife and children out of Libya
Canadian Cynthia Vanier is the accused ringleader of the plot that included opening fake bank accounts and acquiring various properties in Mexico that would act as safe houses for the Gaddafi kin. Two Mexicans and a Dane are also alleged to have taken part in the operation, which authorities first learned of in September.
The estate is not in Gaddafi’s name and local realtors said they had not heard about it. But Can/Aust CEO Gary Peters told the National Post he was involved in the operation to bring the Libyan dictator’s third son to the Punta Mita property.
Mr. Peters said he had been to the property twice — once to view it and again when it was handed over. He would not identify it further, saying he did not want people snooping and that it likely would be sold soon anyway.
He said the plan was to be conducted with the approval of the Mexican government, which was to supply the required documentation. There is no evidence Mexican authorities had considered granting the family permission to resettle in Mexico.
Confirming Wednesday’s National Post exclusive, Mexican authorities announced today that they had foiled a plan in September to smuggle Saadi other Gaddafi family members into the country.
Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said intelligence officials uncovered the plot at the height of pro-democracy protests in the north African nation to bring Saadi and other relatives into Mexico on false papers.
Suspecting the group of organized crime, falsification of documents and human trafficking, authorities detained Ms. Vanier in Mexico City, on November 10 and rounded up her alleged accomplices the following day, said Mr. Poire.
Ms. Vanier, of Vanier Consulting in Mount Forest, is alleged to have been the direct point of contact with the Gaddafi family, and in charge of financing the operation.
Gabriela Davila Huerta, who may also go by the name Gabriela Davila de Cueto, a Mexican living in the United States, was the alleged point of contact with false document makers, Jose Luis Kennedy Prieto, also a Mexican citizen, was allegedly in charge of obtaining documentation and Dane Pierre Christian Flensborg allegedly the head of logistics.
“It is of no surprise that Mexico was considered to be a hideaway for this international criminal,” Mexican security expert Alberto Islas said of Gaddafi. “Mexico has a long way to go in border control and money-laundering actions if it wants to be considered part of a North America alliance.
“Puerto Vallarta and the state of Jalisco has been home to some of the most dangerous drug traffickers,” said Mr. Islas, an analyst at the Mexico City-based consulting firm Risk Evaluation Ltd. “A foreigner with armed bodyguards would not have stood out in the city.”
Reuters files
Former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi
Since ousting Col. Gaddafi with the help of NATO, the National Transitional Council has been trying to trace the billions worth of assets the late dictator, his family and associates held around the world. About $2.2-billion worth of Libyan assets are held by Canadian institutions.
The Canadian Libyan Council said if members of the Gaddafi family own the Mexican property it should be considered an asset to be returned to the Libyan people. “Any institution, private individuals or governments who accept money from the Gaddafi family is to be held accountable through the international community, as this is unacceptable,” said Council spokeswoman Amal Abuzgaya.
She said Saadi Gaddafi’s “lavish lifestyle” had come at the expense of Libyans. “The expenditure of the Libyan peoples’ money is unacceptable and needs to be returned back to the Libyan people via their transitional government.”
Col. Gaddafi, who was killed by rebel forces on Oct. 20, had eight children. His second son, Saif al-Islam, was caught last month and faces trial before the International Criminal Court. Three others are dead and three fled to neighbouring Algeria.
Known for his high-flying lifestyle, Saadi Gaddafi played professional soccer and served in the Libyan special forces before turning his attention to engineering and business, including a Hollywood movie company.
Bloomberg News
Punta Mita is described as a 1,500-acre peninsula that “dazzles your eye.”
He visited Canada regularly and spent three months in Montreal and Toronto in 2008. He returned the following year for the Toronto International Film Festival. Security contractors who guarded him in Canada were alarmed by his appetite for drugs and prostitutes.
After the start of the Libyan revolution last February, Mr. Peters contacted the bodyguards who had protected Gaddafi at the film festival and asked if they wanted to work for him again, this time to extract the dictator’s son from Libya, but they turned him down.
Gaddafi’s lawyer did not respond to a request about the property. It is unclear why the Mexico escape plan was never carried out. (Venezuela and Barbados were also discussed as possible countries of refuge.)
Possible complications included a travel ban the United Nations imposed on Feb. 26, alleging Gaddafi was a commander of “military units involved in repression of demonstrations.”
Interpol issued an Orange Notice on March 4 warning that members of the Gaddafi regime, including Saadi, “may attempt to travel or to move assets, which would constitute a threat to both the civilian population in Libya and in other countries.” The UN froze Saadi Gaddafi’s assets in March.
On July 17, Mr. Peters, who lives in Cambridge, Ont., and Cynthia Vanier of Vanier Consulting in Mount Forest, Ont., travelled to Libya on what she called a fact-finding expedition. They flew in a Hawker 800 executive jet contracted from Veritas Worldwide Security, a U.S. company run by a retired U.S. Marine.
After 10 days in Libya, they returned to Canada and Ms. Vanier sent a report outlining her findings to CANADEM, an Ottawa-based non-profit group with which she was affiliated. She asked that the report be forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Affairs said the study was “circulated at the officer level” and had no impact on Canadian policy. CANADEM, which matches humanitarian workers with agencies seeking their expertise, has now severed its ties with Ms. Vanier.Those who have seen the study said it reflected a view of the Libyan conflict that the Gaddafi regime was promoting at the time, alleging that NATO and the Libyan rebels were committing atrocities and war crimes.
As Tripoli fell to the Libyan rebels in August, Saadi Gaddafi fled. The rebels captured his beachfront villa and found a Lamborghini, Audi, BMW and Toyota and catalogues for yachts and cars. The compound had a soccer field and an underground escape tunnel.
He went overland to Niger, where he was granted asylum. Mr. Peters has said he took part in the escape. Interpol has since issued a warrant for Saadi Gaddafi’s arrest, saying he is wanted for “allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation.”
He has denied any wrongdoing and wants the Interpol warrant dropped.
Ms. Vanier was arrested in Mexico City more than three weeks ago and remains in custody, along with two business partners of Gregory Gillispie, the California man who supplied the plane for the July Libya trip.
“We were told that there’s absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing against my two partners,” Mr. Gillispie said.
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Gary Peters at the Libyan-Tunisian border.
“We didn’t traffic any human beings because it’s listed on the flight manifest who all was on the aircraft,” he said.
He said his dealings with Ms. Vanier began when his company was contracted to provide a jet to take Ms. Vanier and Mr. Peters to Libya. When she did not pay the balance of the contract, he and one of the partners arrested in Mexico flew to Canada to discuss the matter with her, he said.
“That’s when we met this Gary Peters and the other guy,” he said.
He said Mr. Peters was accompanied by a man from New Zealand.
A retired Marine whose exploits during the first Gulf War were documented in the book Storm on the Horizon, Mr. Gillispie said he was not impressed with the men. “When we met Cyndy, and these two guys that were with her, I mean we were all rolling our eyes. It was like, holy cow, what a bunch of bozos.”
He said Ms. Vanier told him she needed to conduct nine more fact-finding missions over the next year and that she was looking for an extended contract for aircraft. Mr. Gillispie said he and his partner agreed to provide a Gulfstream jet.
Ms. Vanier had subsequently asked to meet in Mexico City in early November, he said. During the meeting, he said federal police arrested all four of those present. Mexico can hold suspects for 40 days while police investigate.
Newscom
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