Prosecutors said Wednesday they broke up not one, but two Indiana Jones-style plots to ``extract'' the son of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi from Libya and bring him to Mexico as his father's regime crumbled, the Associated Press reported in Mexico City Wednesday.
The plan to sneak out al-Saadi Gadhafi involved piles of stolen passports, white-knuckle flights with pilots who refused to land in war-torn Libya and luxury homes bought under false names in Mexico, Assistant Attorney General Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas said.
He said it was led by a Canadian woman, a Danish man and two Mexican suspects who were charged this week with attempted immigrant trafficking, falsifying documents and organized crime.
Salinas said the group hired pilots to fly from Mexico to Kosovo, from there to the Tunisian capital of Tunis and on to Libya in July, but that attempt failed to extract the dictator's son.
``They weren't able to do it out because the pilots refused to carry out a secret landing,'' Salinas said.
The ring then allegedly made arrangements for a second attempt, hiring pilots and a plane. But Mexican authorities were tipped off to the scheme by a series of anonymous e-mails and arrested the four suspects in November, before the second flight could take off.
The suspects were detained in November and held under form of house arrest until last week, when they were formally charged. Because they have not been ordered held over for trial, they have not entered pleas, nor do they have lawyers of record.
Authorities have said that Canadian Cynthia Vanier was the alleged ringleader of the plan, and the Danish man, identified as Pierre Christian Flensborg, was ``the logistic liaison.''
Salinas said the story began in 2009, when 4,586 blank Mexican passport forms were stolen in Mexico City. Apparently, the ring got hold of some of those blank passports.
It had also discussed what false names to use for al-Saadi and his family, he said.
He said Vanier had a false Mexican passport and birth certificate in her own name when she was detained in November; the documents were apparently used to open bank accounts. Vanier, 52, has been identified in Canadian news media as a former mediator for Indian tribes from Mount Forest, Ontario.
The suspects also reportedly arranged to acquire properties where al-Saadi Gadhafi and his relatives were to have lived under false identities once they arrived in Mexico.
Those properties included a $1.25 million dollar apartment at the St. Regis, a hotel and residential tower on Mexico City's leafy Reforma boulevard. The hotel's website describes its 24-hour room service and butlers, and says ``St. Regis Residences offer a unique opportunity to expand your incomparable lifestyle.''
They had allegedly made arrangements to buy that apartment but the deal had not yet gone through, prosecutors said.
The conspirators had also allegedly made a $57,000 down payment on a home at a coastal development near the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The beachfront house, whose total cost was not clear, sports an ornate double car port, a swimming pool and direct beach access, according to photos of the property at the address listed by prosecutors. Vallarta & Beyond, a real estate company that once represented the sellers, said the house had been for sale at a a price of around $600,000.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that a fifth suspect, who they would not identify, was still at large.