Ten miles up the Bay of Flags from Puerto Vallarta along Mexico’s Pacific coast, along tourist traps and getaways for the wealthy and celebrity, is Punta Minta. Its developers boast of large gated villas, luxury hotels, fine beaches and a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. Following a tabloid-fodder August visit to the peninsula by Lady Gaga, the resort says: “we in Punta Mita have a culture of not revealing our celeb and Fame Monsters‘ whereabouts while in residence.”
But the resort almost featured another resident fame monster: Libyan party boy and military commander Saadi Gadhafi, son of deceased dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
According to Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire, the Gaddafi family warlord — a soccer enthusiast with a reputation for partying and ordering attacks on unarmed protesters — attempted to flee to the resort town with the assistance of a Canadian private security company and a shadowy multinational team of contractors. The plot was foiled, however, following its detection in September by Mexican intelligence agents. Then last month, federal police in Mexico City swooped on the plotters, which included a Canadian ringleader, a Danish logistician and two Mexicans accused of creating false identity papers for the Gadhafi family.
The group are also accused of opening bank accounts and attempting to buy up properties — like the undisclosed Punta Minta location — to use as hideouts.
The plot likely began sometime after the fall of Libya’s capitol Tripoli to revolutionary fighters, which spelled the inevitable end of the 42-year-rule of mad-dog dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In October, Gaddafi died while attempting to flee his hometown of Sirte. In September, 38-year-old Saadi Gaddafi fled to Niger, where he was granted exile.
Working in the background was Cynthia Ann Vanier of Ontario-based Vanier Consulting and Gary Peters, CEO of Can/Aust Security and Investigations. In July, Vanier, with Peters providing security, made a down payment on an executive jet owned by Veritas Worldwide Security, and flew to Libya on a “fact-finding expedition,” reported the National Post. A Gaddafi booster, Vanier completed her expedition and sent a report to Canadian non-profit group CANADEM, which was circulated but ultimately dismissed as reflecting pro-Gadhafi propaganda.
Peters later returned to Libya to help Saadi Gadhafi flee to Niger. The operation was successful, although Peters says he survived a gunshot wound inflicted by rebel fighters. Meanwhile, Veritas Worldwide’s president, Gregory Gillispie, requested Vanier fulfill her end of the bargain by paying the rest of the money owed for the plane. Vanier, suspiciously claiming to represent both the Canadian government and the United Nations, arranged a meeting in Mexico City, where she requested a contract extension.
Finally, at a follow-up meeting in November, the group — absent Peters — were arrested. Peters was also oddly and apparently acting under the assumption the Mexican government approved.
Gillispie told National Post: “It was like, holy cow, what a bunch of bozos.”
Saadi Gadhafi didn’t make it out of Niger. That much is clear. But his attempt to flee brings up all sorts of questions — from the role of mercenaries operating in post-revolutionary Libya to the security of Mexico.
The country’s Pacific coast has become increasingly dangerous as traditional criminal overlords the Sinaloa Cartel face pressure from new arrivals the Zetas. Acapulco, 600 miles south, is currently experiencing a bloody turf war.
While the Puerto Vallarta area has been largely spared, it is still a base for “some of the most dangerous drug traffickers,” security expert Alberto Islas told National Post. “A foreigner with armed bodyguards would not have stood out in the city,” he said.
Photo: Flickr/HBarrison
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