Plot to smuggle Qaddafi's son into Mexico foiled

Mexico said it has broken up an international plot to smuggle a son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and his family into Mexico under false names and with false Mexican documents.

MEXICO CITY // Mexico said yesterday it has broken up an international plot to smuggle a son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and his family into Mexico under false names and with false Mexican documents.

The elaborate plan to bring Al Saadi Qaddafi to Mexico allegedly involved two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Danish suspect, Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said.

The plot was uncovered in early September as Mr Al Saadi was fleeing Libya shortly after his father's ouster. He never made it to Mexico, but did reach the Western African country of Niger, where he has been living.

The plotters allegedly jetted into Mexico, opened bank accounts and bought properties meant to be used as safe houses in several parts of the country, including one at the resort of Bahia de las Banderas on Mexico's Pacific coast.

"The large economic resources which this criminal organisation has, or had, allowed them to contract private flights," Mr Poire told a news conference.

Mr Poire said the leader of the plot was a Canadian woman he identified as Cynthia Vanier. He said she had been detained on November

10 and is being held, along with three other suspects, under a form of house arrest on suspicion of falsifying documents.

Poire said Ms Vanier "was the direct contact with the Qaddafi family and the leader of the group, and presumably was the person in charge of the finances of the operation."

The plot also allegedly involved a Mexican woman who lived in the United States, who Mr Poire said served as the liaison to obtain the falsified Mexican identity documents.

A Danish man alleged served as "the logistic liaison" for the plan, Mr Poire said.

"The activities of the criminal organisation in our country included the falsification of official documents, the opening of bank accounts with false documents, the purchase of real estate that were intended, among other things, to serve as a residence for the Qaddafi family at a house located in the zone of the Bahia de Banderas," just north of the resort of Puerto Vallarta.

The Mexican officials made no mention of Muammar Qaddafi himself being involved in the plan. He was ousted from power in late August and was captured and killed in Libya on October 20.