La politica es la politica

For the first time in six years, Costa Rica is a little safer

2012-06-01T18:49:00.003-07:00

June 1. Costa Rica reported 474 homicides in 2011, 53 fewer than in the previous year.

This the first decrease in six years.

According to an official government report, the homicide rate per 100,000 fell from 11.5 in 2010 to 10.3 in 2011.

Beautiful - and a little safer than last year

This is only the second time in the past 10 years that a decline has been reported. The first decline in homicides took place in 2004, when the overall number dropped from 300 to 280 deaths.

As possible evidence that some for the deaths were related to drug and human trafficking along the Central American isthmus, 55 of those killed in 2011 were Nicaraguans, and 14 were Colombians. In total, 378 Costa Ricans were murdered in 2011.

Statistics show that the capital city San Jose is the district with the most homicides, at 171. This is followed by Limon, with 111. Limon is a province on the Caribbean coast that has been hit hard by disputes among drug gangs.

According to United Nations statistics, Central America is one of the most violent regions in the world, with an overall murder rate of over 30 homicides per 100,000. Particularly dangerous is the “Northern Triangle” (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador), where gangs, often working for larger Mexican and South America cartels, are vying for dominance in the drug trade.

Costa Rica, however, has a murder rate that is only one third of the regional average.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

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The private trials of Cynthia Vanier

2012-06-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

June 1. On Thursday, May 24, 2012, Cynthia Vanier, the Canadian in prison in Chetumal, Mexico, lost a legal judgement that might have seen her released from her prison cell and on her way home to Canada.

Ms. Vanier is facing charges that she plotted to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico while she was under contract to the engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, which had close ties to Mr. Gaddafi.

The same judge who ruled to charge Ms. Vanier back in February reasserted his original decision, letting the charges stand.

The nature of the appeal, and the specifics of the decision, are still somewhat unclear. However, La politica, as a result of extensive communication with many people close to the trial, can give an approximate summary of what happened, and what the consequences might be.

It was in February 2012 that Ms. Vanier was formally charged with falsification of documents, human trafficking, and participation in organized crime. Her family and defense team have argued from the beginning that her human rights had been violated by Mexican authorities, and that this alone should be sufficient cause for her release.

The argument appears to have been that Ms. Vanier had her rights violated under the Vienna Declaration of June 25, 1993. Mexico is one of the 171 countries that adopted the Declaration by consensus.

Ms. Vanier has alleged that directly after her detention – which has always been reported as being on November 10, 2011, but which she says in her statement was November 9, 2011 – she faced a number of abuses.

She was yelled at and denied toilet access. She was denied access to a telephone. During transport she was violently elbowed in the kidney by a female officer, which resulted in an injury that has required ongoing medical attention. She was denied access to a translator, and repeatedly mocked and photographed by officers with cell phones.

After being transferred to a facility in Mexico City she was by her own account “pushed into a cement hole”. When finally allowed to visit the toilet there was blood in her urine as a result of the injury to her kidney. Repeated requests to see a doctor were denied, and she was left in a cell with fluorescent lights on 24 hours a day.

Canadian officials claim they did not receive notification until November 13. During her detention Ms. Vanier was ill, throwing up in her cell, and her clothes were soaked in urine and blood. She had no access to a lawyer, though she did finally see a doctor, who gave her something for her pain.

Her time in the detention centre in Mexico City, or “Arraigo”, was initially set for 40 days, and then extended to 80 days. Physical conditions were poor: five to eight people per cell, constant audio and video surveillance, cockroaches in food, fluorescent lights on 24x7, no access to writing materials.

If possible, the social conditions were worse: of the 30 women in detention in December, 2011, 26 were attended by doctors due to rape and severe physical bearings. Male prisoners were also seen with evidence of beatings.

Ms. Vanier, who suffered a mild myocardial infarction while in detention, was given access to a cardiologist and an echo cardiogram, though tests were done with multiple observers in humiliating circumstances. Ms. Vanier’s blood pressure was elevated, and she stated that her hands and fingers turned blue when she stood and walked.

The Mexican judicial system - limited visibility

Was this the evidence that was ruled on May 24? We aren’t sure. One source has told La politica that the judge did not rule on the specifics of the submission, and that this was simply a procedural issue which the judge in Chetumal had to remedy by reviewing his decision. He did that, and nothing changed.

It is also our understanding that this decision did not focus on the validity of the evidence claiming to come from the “Anonymous” Internet hacking group, which included damning emails that implicate Ms. Vanier and others in the alleged plot. This evidence, as well as testimony from the convicted felon Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez, is central to the government’s case against Ms. Vanier.

The material from Anonymous, without which the prosecutor’s job would be made considerably more difficult, may not be admissible in court for two important reasons: it has no identifiable source that would allow it to be certified, and it was almost certainly obtained illegally.

“You need to follow all legal procedures,” John Ackerman, a legal scholar at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told La politica in an interview.

Specifically, Prof. Ackerman has confirmed to La politica that evidence obtained illegally is not admissible in court. Also, the source of evidence has to be confirmed, which is unlikely to happen in the case of the Anonymous emails.

“The evidence needs to be certified,” says Prof. Ackerman. “The Mexicans are very rigorous about this.”

However, Prof. Ackerman also says that in Mexico the moral character of a witness is less of an issue than in courts in Canada and the United States, which suggests that testimony from Esquino Nuñez – hardly a reliable character – may be allowed to stand.

“In principal, in Mexico it is not as acceptable to look into the moral character of a witness,” says Prof. Ackerman. “Of course, it is used, but it is not as common a practice – testimonies are taken more on face value.”

On May 23^rd in Los Angeles La politica met with Greg Gillispie, the San Diego-based aircraft broker who used Mr. Esquino as a source of aircraft for Ms. Vanier’s SNC-Lavalin-sponsored work in North Africa. Mr. Gillispie’s business partner, Gabby de Cueto, was arrested shortly after Ms. Vanier in Mexico City and is in the same prison in Chetumal.

During our meeting Mr. Gillispie was cautiously optimistic. He had heard that the appellate judge, who was in Mexico City, was familiar with Esquino Nuñez’s criminal past and therefore might be suspicious of the validity of the government’s case. However, we now know that the decision was ultimately made by the original judge in Chetumal, and seems to have been a rather narrow procedural ruling which, at most, was based primarily on the human rights issue.

Mr. Gillispie has been very active in trying to clear his name. He has made himself easily available to La politica, and has even contacted the RCMP, who said they would only act upon a request from US authorities. The US authorities, however, don’t appear to put much faith in the Mexican evidence, because they have not questioned Mr. Gillispie and, as far as La politica knows, have no intention of doing so.

The Canadian government has been contacted by La politica on two occasions with regard to Ms. Vanier’s detention in Mexico. Citing privacy issues, the government has been reluctant to offer information that, in La politica’s opinion, should be public knowledge, such as the name of the presiding judge.

“Ms. Vanier has been charged with very serious crimes,” John Babcock, spokesperson for Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, wrote to La politica back in April. “Canadian officials are in touch with her and her husband to provide consular assistance. Canada will continue to liaise with Mexican authorities on Ms. Vanier's behalf to request a transparent trial and ensure her medical needs are being met.”

We have since spoken to Mr. Babcock on the phone a few times and, though friendly and accessible, he has been unable to shed more light on Ms. Vanier’s legal status in Mexico.

However, it seems that the consulate in Cancun has been providing active support to Ms. Vanier.

In fact, sources have told La politica that consular support has been adequate. For example, consular officials apparently arrived in Chetumal on Wednesday the 23^rd with travel documents prepared in case Ms. Vanier were to be released.

News of this, as well as the fact that Ms. Vanier had been provided with a translator, caused the family some optimism that she might be set free and on her way home on Thursday the 24^th. There was even preparation for a family member to travel from abroad for a reunion.

On Thursday the 24^th Ms. Vanier was taken to the court house in orange prison garb with handcuffs and shackles. The shackles, however, were too short for her to climb the steps to the 2nd floor, so she had to go up one step at a time in a sitting position. Once there, they discovered she was in the wrong court house. So back down she went, again having to sit and shift from stair to stair.

Once in the correct building, with the temperature in the high 30s, Ms. Vanier stood for three hours during the legal proceeding, only to find that the initial charges were to stand.

Now that this process has concluded, there doesn’t seem to be any specific date set for future legal action. Mr. Gillispie, relying on his own sources, has told La politica that nothing will likely happen until after the election on July 1^st – or even after December, 2012, when the new president officially takes office.

This is possible, given how highly politicized his process has become. It is also possible from a purely legal perspective.

“Mexico is working on constitutional reforms to expedite trials” says Prof. Ackerman. “It is in process now, and still being discussed. The code of criminal procedures has not passed yet.”

This is all part of a major overhaul of the Mexican judicial system, in which oral trials could be possible and which would place more emphasis on the presumption of innocence. At present all trials are document-based, and involve only lawyers and judges.

The present legal structure could result in an extended stay for Ms. Vanier.

“The whole process could literally take forever,” says Prof. Ackerman. “There are people who get out after having been in jail for seven or eight years. It is very common to languish in jail while waiting for a final decision.”

Prof. Ackerman further stated that there could be a “dizzying amount” of procedural decisions.

Let’s be very clear: this is not a transparent trial. The proceedings are not open to the public. The evidence is held close by lawyers and judges, and the names of the presiding judges themselves are unknown. We have spoken to many, many people closely connected to this trial, and have found it almost impossible to provide specifics that we can report on.

At some point, one would expect the government of Canada to make a formal statement as to what they expect from the Mexican judicial system. This would not be a form of interference in another country’s affairs, but a simple observation that, in effect, a country cannot detain a person indefinitely and subject them to an arbitrary and secretive legal process.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

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Custodian of Guadalajara’s Puente Grande prison executed in El Salto

2012-05-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

May 30. Ricardo Solano Díaz, 34, the custodian of the second unit of the “Federal de Reinserción Social de Puente Grande” prison just outside of Guadalajara, was murdered on Wednesday, May 30, in El Salto, only 200 metres from an entrance to the facility.

Mr. Solano Díaz was inside a cybercafe that also doubled as a stationary store located in the Arroyo Hondo and Agua Blanca neighbourhood when four armed men entered the business and shot him in the back.

The scene outside the cybercafe

They fled in a black compact car with Mexico City (Distrito Federal) license plates, which was later found about one kilometre from the attack.

After the attack, Mr. Solano Díaz’s body was left crumpled over the store counter. He had been shot at least five times. Municipal Police and Red Cross arrived shortly later, but could only confirm his death.

Jalisco’s Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) removed the body and transferred it to the morgue. According to Mexican law an autopsy must be conducted after a suspected murder before a body can be retrieved by relatives.

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Violence continues to rage in Acapulco as six more die

2012-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

May 30. The violence in Acapulco is continuing, with at least six people having been killed in the early hours and morning of May 30, according to official reports.

Included among the victims are a newspaper employee and two women and three men. The dead were riddled with bullets, with “narcomessages” left on their bodies, suggesting that the violence is related to ongoing gang disputes.

Three of the bodies were dumped in black bags

The violence was spread throughout the city, including a severed head that was left at the Marina Beach condominium complex in the exclusive Diamond Zone.

At 4:44 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday the 29^th a man was executed at an Oxxo store (a Mexican 7-Eleven) at the corner of Constituyentes and Cuauhtémo avenues. This is in the heart of the city, only one block from the Miguel Alemán coastal road.

The victim was identified as Samuel Martinez Ramirez, 32, who worked as a delivery driver for the local Novedades Acapulco. He had been shot by a .45 calibre handgun: once in the neck, once in the right eye, and twice in the right arm.

According to eye witnesses, two gunmen entered the Oxxo store and directed fire against the worker, who was delivering newspapers at the time.

A heavier police presence isn't helping

Then, at 7 a.m. the dismembered bodies of three men were found in black bags that had been thrown in an area known as Paso Texca, where there is a landfill that has become notorious as a dumping ground for corpses.

Two of the dismembered victims were identified as Pedro Torres Miranda, 27, and Gilberto Mejia. The third remains unidentified as the body had no head or arms.

The killers left a “narcomessage” in the name of the Beltrán Leyva brothers, claiming that the cartel was active in Acapulco and warning its enemies to back off.

Previous to this discovery, in the morning of the Tuesday the 29th the bodies of two women were found near the town of Dos Arroyos (Two Creeks). The victims, aged between 18 and 25, were wearing blue jeans and black tops and had multiple .45 mm bullet wounds.

In recent days, taxi drivers have been targeted, and Tuesday the 29^th was no different. A driver and a civilian were wounded when fleeing from a taxi stand. The “Urvans” stand was for taxis heading off to the “Costa Chica” municipalities.

The incident occurred around 3:30 in the afternoon. Gunmen arrived at the scene and shot up the taxi stand, which is located in the Las Cruces neighbourhood on Lázaro Cárdenas boulevard.

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Man murdered in broad daylight in Cruz de Huanacaxtle

2012-05-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

May 28. A man was murdered in broad daylight in Cruz de Huanacaxtle, a town in the municipality of Bahia de Banderas, north of the resort town of Puerto Vallarta.

He was shot on Atún street between Tiburón y Sirena. The murder occurred the morning of Monday, May 28, near the the town’s health clinic. The first calls to police came at 11.25 a.m.

Scenic La Cruz, where the streets are named after marine life

The victim was hit in the head with bullets from an AK-47 rifle. Four 7.62 x 39 mm casings from an AK-47 were found at the scene.

Terrified residents ran, ducked for cover, and threw themselves to the ground after hearing a number of gunfire bursts.

Witnesses saw two white vans speeding away from the scene of the crime, leaving behind the body of a man identified so far only as “Chatillo” due to a tattoo on his chest. Another tattoo on his left shoulder said “santa muerte” (holy death).

Directly after the shooting, some frightened residents ran to local schools to pick up their children - the murder occurred near the Emiliano Zapata elementary school. Other citizens temporarily shuttered their businesses. A few minutes after the gunfire was heard police patrols showed up, sirens wailing.

The dead man was wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and brown boots. He was estimated to be between 27 and 35 years of age.

The deceased had no identification on him. However, a yellow envelope was found, as is commonly used by banks, suggesting he may have been robbed of some cash.

(NB - This post has been rejected by some local message boards, as it is seen as alarmist and irrelevant to the purpose of community boards devoted to activities, restaurant reviews, advice, notices etc. As well, basic crime information is available in the Spanish-language press, and this is deemed sufficient. La politica posted directly after the La Cruz event first came to light, early in the afternoon of March 28, in the hopes of warning the people in La Cruz and any others who might be headed that way.)

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Bucerias bank manager murdered

2012-05-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

May 28. The lifeless body of a Bucerias bank manager was found on Sunday, May 27, in the Aurora neighbourhood on the road to Pitillal near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

(In related news, on May 28 a man was gunned down by an AK-47 in broad daylight in Cruz de Huanacaxtle near Bucerias. Message board moderators are not posting this, perhaps for fear of raising alarm, but we feel people have a right to know. Please pass on and post - we believe people in La Cruz would like to be informed. )

At about 6:20 pm Mexican police began receiving reports that a lifeless male subject, José Santana Caro Ortega, 47, was found in apartment #23 in building 2004-A in the Aurora area.

Police arrived and interviewed a resident of the building, “Martha”, who said that she hadn’t seen José Santana Caro Ortega in days, and that she had noticed a strong odour coming from his residence.

Caro Ortega was a manager at a Bancomer branch in Bucerias.

When officials arrived the apartment was already opened. Apparently, Mr. Caro Ortega’s family had hired a locksmith to open the building, whereupon his body was discovered.

Police have also advised that the victim’s vehicle, a red 2006 Dodge Caliber, has gone missing.

Bucerias is a popular tourist destination near Puerto Vallarta. The area has a large expat community.

(Following inaccurate reports from the Spanish language press, this blog initially reported that the bank manager's body was found in Bucerias. We corrected the article within an hour of posting. Consequently, message board moderators have concluded that the information from La politica is both untrustworthy and irrelevant to residents of Bucerias. The problem is the extremely polarized response: many people believe that crime reports have no place on boards, whereas others think this information is at least, if not more, relevant than updates on found pets, second-hand BBQs, and the local Scrabble club. We are in the latter camp.)

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Brad Will’s alleged killer has been in custody in Mexico since March

2012-05-27T15:12:00.002-07:00

May 27. Lenin Emilio Osorio Ortega, the alleged murderer of the American journalist Bradley Roland Will, was arrested on March 9, 2012, not on May 23 as previously stated by the governor of the state of Oaxaca, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, as well as by that state’s attorney general, Manuel de Jesús López.

On Monday the 23^rd both the governor and the attorney general said in interviews that Osorio Ortega had been detained that day at about 7:30 in the morning. They said that his arrest came after over a year of investigation.

However, a statement issued by the state attorney general’s office in March had acknowledged the detention of Mr. Osorio Ortega, aged 36, along with three others. At that time the detained were charged with illegal possession of firearms.

Mr. Osorio Ortega...

Mr. Will, a reporter for Independent Media Center, or Indymedia, was shot to death on October 27, 2006 during a labor dispute in the state’s capital city of Oaxaca. He was shot twice. Video evidence taken by Mr. Will at the time of his death has implicated government-aligned paramilitaries.

Specific to Mr. Osorio Ortega, the government’s statement on March 9 said that he was detained in the capital’s Las Flores de Santa Lucía del Camino neighbourhood. At that time he had a “Flame” .22 mm pistol tucked into his waist. He also had nine rounds of ammunition on his person. Another round was later found in his bedroom.

Despite this, Manuel de Jesús López held a press conference announcing Mr. Osorio Ortega’s arrest on May 23rd, detailing Mr. Osorio Ortega’s alleged culpability in the death of Mr. Will.

...innocent until proven guilty

The prosecutor said the suspect was identified through recordings and photographs that were taken during the conflict in October 2006. He said that the shots were fired at a distance of 43 meters.

He stated that the murder was perpetrated by a “lone assassin”, and that it was specific to the conflict between the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, or “APPO”), and political supporters of the former governor. The governor at that time was Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, often known by its Spanish acronym, “PRI”.

During the initial investigation, shortly after the murder of Mr. Will, two suspects were detained. However, they were later released due to lack of evidence.

As well, on October 16, 2008, an active supporter of APPO, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, was arrested and held on in relation to the murder. He was released after 16 month of detention. No evidence was presented to support the government’s accusations, raising suspicions that Martinez Moreno was simply being used as a scapegoat to provide cover for the former PRI governor.

Consequently, the attorney for Brad Will’s family has been cautious in his reaction to this most recent arrest, as the state has a history of manipulating the criminal justice system for political gain.

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Guanajuato arrests fifteen alleged cartel members

2012-05-26T16:06:00.001-07:00

May 26. The Attorney General of the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre, has paraded before the press fifteen alleged cartel members arrested in twelve raids.

The raids were conducted in León, Purisima, Yuriria and San Francisco del Rincón. The arrested are allegedly members of two different cartels: ten from "Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación " (Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG), and five from "La Familia Michoacana" (The Michoacan Family), possibly including also members of the rival off-shoot "Los Caballeros Templarios" (The Knights Templar).

Zamarripa confirmed that the arrests related to a cartel dispute over the León territory or “plaza”, and that they involved at least twelve recent crimes, including several kidnappings.

The Attorney General further stated that members of the CJNG are likely responsible for the murder of two members of Matehuala Rangel family in the Villa Insurgentes neighbourhood of León.

In the presentation to the media, the official showed off the weapons, drugs, and vehicles confiscated from within the twelve safe houses of the two criminal groups.

These included nine weapons – including pistols and high-powered rifles – over 1,000 cartridges, cocaine, crystal and “rock” methedrine, marijuana, scales for weighing drugs, tactical gear, police uniforms, and radios and cell phones. The take also included six vehicles.

Zamarripa also explained that the arrests solved an un-named crime committed by Roberto Alvizu Montaña, aged 50, which occurred in the Buenavista neighbourhood in León.

The detainees, which came from Chiapas, Michoacán, Chihuahua y Durango, are being held by authorities for a wide range of crimes, including the kidnapping of two businessmen from the southern municipalities of Guanajuato, both of whom were murdered.

Included among the fifteen detained are the cell leaders, two women, and one minor under 16 years of age.

Zamarripa explained that officials were highly motivated to make arrests after five youths were executed in a single night in the city of León. Co-operating law enforcement agencies determined the identity of the rival groups vying for control of the plaza.

During the raids one person was shot and killed: Teodoro Reyes López, aged 62, originally from the southern state of Chiapas.

One of the detainees, Óscar Omar Ortiz Osornio, also known as "El Bikur", was identified by authorities as an extortionist implicated in four kidnappings and two deaths: a merchant and a woman found in a shallow grave near Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato.

(With Spanish language files from Milenio.com and Proceso.com.mx)

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Acapulco mayhem continues: six dead , including mother and child killed at police checkpoint

2012-05-25T22:38:00.002-07:00

May 25. Six people were shot and killed in the Acapulco metropolitan area over a brief period yesterday, including a minor and one woman. Four people were also injured – one of whom was a federal police officer.

Armed men also torched some cars in a junk yard. No casualties were reported in that incident.

According to officials at the state and municipal levels, as well as the Federal Secretariat of Public Security, the first shooting in Acapulco occurred around 4:07 pm in the Emiliano Zapata neighbourhood.

Only minutes later, in the same neighbourhood but this time near the community’s Social Security office, there was more gunfire, with additional shots then reported shortly after in the La Sabana neighbourhood – a more rural area about 21 kilometres away on highway 200.

The first incident occurred when federal police encountered two men in a taxi armed with AK-47s on the main street (Calle 14) of the Emiliano Zapata neighbourhood. They were travelling in a red Volkswagen sedan and, after ignoring an order to stop, opened fire on the police, who immediately repelled the attack.

The taxi was then abandoned further ahead, in the middle of the road, with one man wounded.

Shortly thereafter another car, a white Chevy, drove right through a police roadblock. The police were obviously on edge due to the previous incident, but the result appears to have been a tragic mistake.

This was oversight with horrendous consequences, the likes of which one might expect in Iraq or Afghanistan.

This car was driven by a local official, Cutberto Bailón Ojendiz, aged 42, and had as passengers his wife and two young children.

The response on the part of police?

A hail of bullets from state and federal forces killed the woman, Silvana Garcia Serrano, as well one of her young children. The father, Bailón Ojendiz, and their other child, Ezequiel Serrano, a boy who is also reportedly a minor under 16 years of age, were injured.

The motor vehicle, which was a convertible, had at least 50 bullet holes in it. It was as if they were taking out Bonnie and Clyde.

Only a few meters away from here, at the corner of Vicente Guerrero and José Gervasio 2, also in the Emiliano Zapata neighbourhood, next to the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, or “IMSS”), the body of Gerardo Bello Morales, aged 24, was found lying in a pool of blood between the curb and a taxi.

The resort town of Acapulco is experiencing a crime wave

In another case, again in La Sabana neighbourhood, on Lázaro Cárdenas Boulevard, the bodies of two taxi drivers were found in the back seat of a yellow cab. One man has been identified as Manuel Lugo Herrera, the other is so far unknown. Both had multiple gunshot wounds.

At the scene of this crime, which was at the foot of a statue of revered Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas, were found empty rounds from AK-47s, nine millimetre pistols, 38 mm “supers”, and the 5.7 mm “cop killer”.

And around dawn on Thursday, May 24^th, 21 kilometers down the Acapulco-Mexico highway, another body was found with a message on it – though what it says has not been revealed.

All six dead have been taken to “Semefo”, Mexico’s forensic medical services, for examination.

Also in the early morning hours before dawn on the 24th, a group of men poured gasoline over dozens of cars in a junk yard. The yard is owned by a lawyer with the last name “Memije”, and is located near where the coastal road merges with the highway to Mexico City (Autopista del Sol).

La politica reported on May 16 that three men had been shot and killed in Acapulco – tossed from a taxi. One of the dead was the driver, though it may have been his two passengers that the killers were after.

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Five executions in Guadalajara area

2012-05-16T15:21:00.002-07:00

Within an eight hour period five bodies of people believed to have to have been executed have been found in the Guadalajara area.

The municipalities where the bodies were found include San Pedro Tlaquepaque, El Salto and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

On the morning of Wednesday, May 16, a man was found shot dead in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. The body was found in the El Zapote community, in the Las Animas area behind the Guadalajara airport.

The "escudo", or coat-of-arms, for Tlajomulco

The man appears to have been approximately 25 years old. He was wearing a white tank top, blue denim pants, and white sneakers. He was wrapped in packing tape.

A 9 mm cap was found next to the body, as well as two notes saying he had been killed for being a “rat”.

As well, at 8 a.m. in Tlaquepaque, a neighbourhood to the south of the city popular with tourists, police found the bodies of two men. They have not been identified, and as of yet their cause of death is unknown.

Tlaquepaque's flag - the area is popular with tourists

The bodies were discovered on Independence Street, near El Canelo restaurant. Municipal police are now awaiting officials from Jalisco’s Institute of Forensic Sciences.

Two men were also found shot dead inside a Ford Gran Marquis in La Cuesta, near the pedestrian crossing by the park in La Loma, in the municipality of El Salto.

The bodies were of two men in their twenties. They were taken to the morgue for identification.

The escudo for El Salto

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Acapulco death toll mounts

2012-05-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

In the early hours of Wednesday, May 16, three men were shot near Puerto Marqués, Acapulco.

Their bodies were discarded in the town’s main thoroughfare, behind a taxi stand next to the "Instituto Leonardo Bravo".

According to authorities, the murders occurred at approximately 6:35 a.m. An anonymous caller notified police that the men had been shot “in head and body” and dumped on the street.

According to some witnesses, the bodies were tossed from a taxi belonging to the “Ignacio Allende” cab company operating in the municipality of Cruz Grande. They were found next to a Nissan Tsuru (see photo).

The victims

According to federal authorities, apparently the taxi driver was shot, and then two passengers – one in the passenger front seat, and the other in the back – were violently removed from the vehicle and then each shot at least twice in the head and three times in the back.

The assailants left four yellow and pink cards on the bodies that said: “This goes for all people from Camote, The Wini, and lacrosse ball. Attentively, the Devil’s Commando.

The note actually wrote “jente” for people, instead of “gente”, and spelled lacrosse “lakorossos”. Camote, which means sweet potato, and Wini are apparently gang member names.

Navy personnel as well as State and Municipal police cordoned off the area and awaited the arrival of the medical examiner and officials from the State Attorney General’s office.

As well, on Tuesday night a male and female were found murdered in a Volkswagen Jetta. The female was a minor. The two were found in the Playa Hornos area near Acapulco’s main strip.

(With information from Milenio.com)

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

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From Jalisco to Tamaulipas, Los Zetas’ days are numbered

2012-05-14T20:46:00.001-07:00

The drug war that has raged in Mexico for five and half years, and that has claimed more than 50,000 lives, has been in the news of late: 23 bodies found hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas (May 6); 18 bodies found outside the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco (May 9); and 49 bodies dumped on the side of a highway between Monterrey and the U.S. border, in the state of Nuevo Leon (May 13).

The rationale for this extreme violence is, in a very broad sense, easy to understand: the Mexican government has militarized the conflict, and the cartels have responded by fighting for their lives.

There is an important twist, and that is the Los Zetas cartel, which has been targeted by Mexican authorities, and which has emerged as a hard-core killing machine that refuses to slow down.

But as the military retreats from areas where it has had “successes”, such as Tijuana , Ciudad Juárez, and even Veracruz, the Sinaloa Cartel has emerged as the de facto heir. This is of course not a cut and dry situation – remnants of the Gulf, Juárez and Tijuana Cartels are still active.

However, we are now down to a conflict in which Sinaloa, along with its sometime allies the Gulf Cartel , are in a massive and brutal “final conflict” with Los Zetas, who are counting on support from the weakened Juárez and Tijuana Cartels.

The unspoken strategy on the part of the government seems clear: open the plaza for the Sinaloa Cartel, and remove the competition, particularly Los Zetas.

There is a good reason for this approach. The Sinaloa Cartel is, and always has been, primarily a drug trafficking organization. By comparison, Los Zetas – who began as government-trained paramilitaries before joining the Gulf Cartel and then, ultimately, going solo – are more active in other highly disruptive and violent criminal activities such as kidnapping and extortion.

Without access to profitable drug routes, Los Zetas emerged as an aggressive crime organization that focussed on a corridor down the Gulf coast – from the U.S. border to Guatemala. They leaned heavily into human trafficking and tried to elbow into new drug transit opportunities in Central America.

And they very foolishly decided to roll over the top of Mexico. They challenged the Sinaloa cartel’s client gang Nueva Generacion in Jalisco, and even went up the Pacific coast into the state of Sinaloa itself.

Los Zetas: public enemy number one

Proof that Los Zetas are in the government’s cross hairs, and that Sinaloa is getting an easier ride due to its “peaceful” approach to drug trafficking, can be seen in recent arrest activity and in accusations of Los Zetas’ involvement in massacres.

Four Los Zetas members were recently arrested for the Jalisco killings. The gangsters were detained in Tala, and were allegedly acting on the orders of Juan Carlos Antonio Mercado, alias “El Chato,” a suspected Los Zetas boss.

On May 11 Mexican authorities announced the arrest of the Los Zetas alleged chief enforcer in the Gulf state of Veracruz. Marcos Jesus Hernandez Rodriguez is accused of masterminding the brutal murders of four navy personnel and a civilian in April.

As well, a message was left with Los Zetas claiming responsibility for the killings near Monterrey, which included at least 43 men and half a dozen women. They were found in plastic garbage bags near the town of Cadereyta Jimenez, in Nuevo Leon. The victims had been decapitated, with their hands and feet chopped off.

Many of the bodies had tattoos, and state prosecutor Adrian de la Garza said some of them may have been immigrants or hailed from other parts of the country. Los Zetas are known to intercept migrants and to force them into crime, sometimes slaughtering them for refusing to cooperate.

However, Los Zetas have since claimed that the Cadreyta Jimenez massacre was not their doing. This is an odd turn of events, as the gang has rarely found a mass murder that it wasn't proud of.

Although media reports have said that the U.S. government considers Los Zetas to be “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico,” it would seem that Los Zetas’ strategy of ultra-violence is desperate, and has set them against the government, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Mexican society itself.

In the meantime, the Sinaloa Cartel sticks to its knitting, which is the highly lucrative trafficking market. And it does this via a very effective policy of old-school bribery and corruption. This is a modus operandi that is built for the long haul, and that will thrive no matter who is elected in Mexico’s presidential election July 1.

And Los Zetas? Like any organization that is built on violence, and that has a weak revenue stream and shallow government influence due to its limited financial resources, it will become a victim of its own violent desperation, with deaths and arrests making it impossible to build organizational continuity.

No one knows when the expiration date is, but one thing is certain: Los Zetas cannot “heat up the plaza” forever. Sooner or later, they’ll simply burn out.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com

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Canadian ties lead to more thorough investigation of Carmen Ximena Osegueda murder

2012-05-08T15:41:00.001-07:00

In announcing progress in the investigation into the murder of the Mexican-Canadian Carmen Ximena Osegueda and her Mexican companion, Alvarado Alejandro Santamaria, authorities in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, alluded to the “national and even international” focus “because the young woman, born in our country, also had Canadian citizenship.”

Mexican authorities have now concluded that Ms. Ximena Osegueda, 39, a University of British Columbia graduate student, and Mr. Santamaria, 38, were victims of a gang-related theft and murder. It is believed the two were killed on, or shortly after, December 14, 2011.

At a press conference, Attorney General for the State of Oaxaca, Manuel de Jesus Lopez Lopez, alluded to reports that Canadian tourists might boycott the resort area of Huatulco, near where the crime was committed.

The original "missing" posted for Carmen and Alejandro

Citing the assistance of Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the Oaxacan authorities said that they had detained five gang members, among them three women, and that three others are still on the run.

Specific to the murders, the prosecutor said that those who allegedly took the lives of the couple were: Oscar Geovany Ibarra Diego; Juan Carlos Solís García (or Juan Carlos Caballero García); Armando Escamilla Mejía; and Omar Rosalino García Fuentes.

Oscar Ibarra Geovany Diego is in custody, and the remaining three are still fugitives.

The other four who are already in detention are: Nardy Antares Durán Castillo; Mitzy Daniela Castillo Cruz; Araceli Ivett Casco Estrada; and Irasema Sánchez Santa Rosa.

Authorities noted that the capture of Oscar Geovany Ibarra Diego, known as “El Munrra”, resulted from cooperation between federal and state police.

They also said that statements from detainees led police to where Carmen and Alejandro were buried, near Punta Arena, Huatulco.

However, the CBC had earlier reported that it was Ximena Osegueda Magana's ex-husband, Jacy Wright, as well as her brother, who located the bodies with the aid of a dog Wright had purchased for Carmen to keep her safe.

Carmen and Alejandro were last seen in a red two-door 2012 Chevrolet compact in the Punta Arena area. The brand new car had no license plates, but did have a GPS system.

Soon after her disappearance Carmen’s family's house near Punta Arena was ransacked, but with no sign of forced entry, suggesting that the thieves were in possession of her keys. 20,000 pesos (C$1,500) was also withdrawn using the couple’s bank cards.

Within a week of their disappearance officials tracked the vehicle via its GPS, finding it in the colonial City of Oaxaca, 350 kilometres from Huatulco.

The organizational chart for the gang

Inside that vehicle, investigators discovered a sales receipt from a butcher shop nearby. The shop had closed-circuit camera, and investigators established that the purchase was made by Enrique Calderón Cabrera, an old boyfriend of Rosita Castillo, both of whom have since been murdered.

The investigation has also expanded to include the murder of another gang member, Salvador Leyva Alvarado.

Calderón Cabrera and Castillo were killed execution-style, with their bodies dumped earlier this year en route to the Monte Alban archeological and tourist site.

Leyva Alvarado’s body was found at an address know to be used by the gang. Authorities believe all three were murdered as a result of scores being settled within the gang.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com

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Interpol central to Lucier arrest in Mexico

2012-05-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

One of the most wanted cocaine traffickers in Canada was arrested in Nayarit, Mexico, on Wednesday, May 2^nd. This is a clear indication that Canadian and Mexican authorities are ramping up their coordination in tracking organized crime.

Nicholas Michael Lucier, 44, a Vancouver Island native, was picked up on an international warrant that was issued in September 2009 after he’d skipped parole for a cocaine trafficking conviction.

The Secretary General of Government in Nayarit, Jose Trinidad Espinosa Vargas, told the Mexican press that it was the collaboration between the Attorney General of the State (PGJE) and Interpol that led to Lucier’s arrest.

(Go here for a video of Lucier being paraded before the Mexican press).

Espinosa Vargas also alluded to a strong relationship between Interpol and the federal Attorney General’s office in Mexico, or “PGR”, which, he said, was highly responsive to requests for assistance from his office in Nayarit.

In Mexico, the PGR acts as prosecutor for federal crimes, and is better-resourced that its state counterparts. Nayarit, a popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast, is one of Mexico’s smaller states. It borders the state of Jalisco to the south.

Espinosa Vargas - Helped out by Interpol, the PGR, and (maybe) the RCMP

Lucier, who was going by the alias Corry Corbett, was captured just outside Nuevo Vallarta, north of the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

The arrest came only four days after the Canadian Thomas Gisby, another known drug trafficker, was murdered in the nearby Paradise Plaza Mall in Nuevo Vallarta.

Gisby was the sixth BC man with links to the drug trade to have been shot to death in Mexico in recent years. (For more detailed info on some of those other killings, see Canadian death in Mexico likely drug-related.)

Though officials have not stated whether the events are linked, Lucier’s arrest almost certainly comes from increased scrutiny on the part of Mexican authorities, which may be due to the Gisby murder.

Mexico is in the midst of a six-year drug war that has claimed over 50,000 lives, and its investigative resources are strapped.

The Mexican government does have the ability to closely track immigration, particularly by air, over an extended period of time, but the PGJE in Nayarit likely couldn’t have managed this on their own. For that they needed the assistance and resources of the PGR, which is tied in to Interpol.

It is also possible that the RCMP, which has had a Canada-wide warrant out for Lucier, tipped off the Mexican authorities as to his presence in their country.

After Lucier disappeared in 2009 the police in Victoria, British Columbia, said they believed he had likely left the country. However, at the time of his arrest in Mexico the RCMP website still said that “his whereabouts remain unknown”, with no indication that he might have been outside of Canada.

Lucier has a criminal record dating back to 1983. Convictions include possession of a prohibited weapon, robbery and assault. He went on the lam when he was in parole for a 3 year and 7 month sentence brought down in 2007. That conviction was for possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

In 2005 Lucier was charged with six counts of possession for purposes of drug trafficking, possession of firearm and ammunition in violation of a court order, and unsafe weapons storage.

At that time, the possession charge was significant: almost four kilos of cocaine, 1.8 kilos of heroin, nearly half a kilo of marijuana, 25 grams of crack cocaine, eight tablets of ecstasy, and 12 grams of methamphetamine. The firearms charge was for a .38 caliber handgun.

Then, on September 29, 2009, Lucier's home in Saanich, on Vancouver Island near the provincial capital of Victoria, was raided. This was part of a larger operation in which nearly 100 police officers raided five homes in Saanich and the West Shore.

The cops seized four high-powered handguns, two vehicles, $420,600 in cash, a stun gun, bear spray, and body armour.

They also found 22.5 kilograms of cocaine, with the lion’s share, 22 kilos, found at a Saanich address that press reports say “was associated with Lucier”. The street value of the cocaine was estimated to be over $1 million.

Lucier's RCMP mug shot

It has been reported that Lucier was acquainted with Gisby, who was shot to death in a Starbucks at 9 a.m on Saturday, April 28^th, just after ordering his morning coffee. However, there is no indication that they were business associates.

Gisby, 47, was a high-level trafficker who had been active in the drug trade in British Columbia for over two decades, and was reportedly well-connected to Colombian and Mexican cartels.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Napoleon Gómez Urrutia heading back to Mexico from exile in Canada

2012-05-04T16:33:00.001-07:00

The leader of Mexico’s National Union of Miners and Metal Workers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, is heading back to Mexico after a six-year self-imposed exile in Canada.

Mr. Gomez fled to Canada to avoid criminal prosecution. Specifically, Mexican prosecutors alleged that Gomez misappropriated $55 million in union funds.

However, Mexico’s Supreme Court has now ruled that there are no legal grounds for refusing to acknowledge Mr. Gomez as leader of the country’s powerful miner’s union.

Napoleón Gómez Urrutia - heading home

In a 3-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled against Mexico’s Labour Ministry, saying that only the union can decide whether a member is eligible to lead.

The main thrust of the accusations against Mr. Gómez was that he had illegally wound-up a miner’s trust, keeping funds for himself that were intended to be disbursed to miners after a mine was sold.

Union lawyers have indicated that all funds have been properly accounted for, including those frozen by the Mexican government.

Gómez has lived in exile in Vancouver, Canada, since 2006. He has received the support of the AFL-CIO, which has argued that the Mexican government was on a witch hunt, not only going after Gómez but also attacking the “Los Mineros” union itself, freezing its bank accounts and declaring all strikes to be illegal.

The union boss had accused the former PAN administration of Vicente Fox with “industrial homicide” after a mine explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006.

All in all, Gómez has beaten back eleven criminal charges against him.

Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, spoke recently in Cartegena, Colombia, on the importance of mining to Canadian business in Latin America. For such a pro-business government to offer refuge to the leader of a Mexican mining union was a strong indication that Canada had serious concerns regarding political interference in Mexico.

Los Mineros is best known for its strike against Grupo Mexico, which operates copper mines and railways.

Things got ugly in 2010 when federal troops were sent in to break a strike at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea copper mine, the nation's biggest, which has a long and bloody history of labour unrest.

The mine, which is near the U.S. border, had been shut down for months, but after police removed the striking workers Grupo Mexico signed a contract with a different union. Since then, the company has been gearing up in hopes of doubling output.

The union has kept two smaller mines closed. Officials for Grupo Mexico had no comment on the Supreme Court ruling, but they likely won’t be pleased.

Mr. Gómez Urrutia’s lawyer, Carlos de Buen, said on the Wednesday, May 2^nd, that his client could now be formally reinstated as the union's general secretary.

The Labour Ministry, which now clearly has no right to interfere with a union’s decision, told Dow Jones News that it would "adjust its ruling based on those criteria."

We can expect some turmoil upon Mr. Gómez’s return. A dissident group issued a statement on Thursday, May 3^rd, asserting that Gomez's election was illegitimate, and claiming that it would file a complaint against the Supreme Court with the Organization of American States.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

The Mexico Gaddafi security detail that wasn’t

2012-05-01T12:15:00.001-07:00

As part of the case against those accused of plotting to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi from North Africa to Mexico, authorities have argued that Mr. Gaddafi, his wife, and two young children were to be placed first at the luxury St. Regis hotel and condominium complex in Mexico City.

To support their argument, the Mexicans are relying on an alleged email, supposedly leaked by “Anonymous”, between two former marines, Greg Gillispie and Michael Boffo, in which Mr. Gillispie allegedly says that millions of dollars could be made offering close protection to a family of four at the St. Regis.

Mr. Gillispie, a former principal of security training company Veritas Worldwide Security, is the owner of GG Global Holdings, a San Diego-based aircraft leasing company. This company contracted aircraft from Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez out of Toluca, Mexico, for use by Cynthia Vanier. Cynthia Vanier is the Canadian accused of organizing the alleged plot while under contract to the troubled Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Mr. Boffo, a former employee of military contractor DynCorp, was a close friend and business partner of Mr. Gillispie’s at Veritas Worldwide Security. He is presently employed by Pax Mondial in Afghanistan.

Mr. Gillispie has been very open to La politica, claiming that the Mexican authorities have confused a legitimate plan to secure the family of a Mexican politician with the alleged Gaddafi plot.

Mr. Boffo has also responded to queries from La politica, and has clearly stated that he had nothing to do with such a plot.

One unusual aspect of such a plan would be the requirement that Americans carry weapons in Mexico. This is against the law. Any plan to offer close protection would then involve the Americans in an advisory role, or operating in serious contravention of Mexican gun laws.

La politica has built a list of some of the men who may have been contacted to provide close protection at the St. Regis, and perhaps then later on as well, should the family have been relocated to a compound on the Pacific Coast, as the Mexicans allege.

The list provided below does not specifically identify the individuals for a number of reasons.

First, all have been contacted by La politica, and not one has been able to confirm or deny that they were approached for a close protection security detail in Mexico. Their silence may be due to NDAs, a desire not to put at risk their security clearance, or a fear that they would be compromising personal loyalties.

Second, they have done nothing illegal that La politica is aware of, and have not consented to having their identities revealed.

Not the gentlemen referred to in this article

Nonetheless, below is a partial roster, as best as La politica has been able to determine so far:

Summary of possible security detail at St. Regis

CP #1. Born 1968 and based in Atlanta, this former DynCorp and Blackwater employee in Iraq is a big Georgia Bulldogs and Southern Eagles fan, and rightly mourned the loss of Larry Munson. He is also fond of tennis star Anna Kournikova (no harm in that).

CP #2. Born 1965. Former member of the Diplomatic Security Service with the U.S. Department of State. Presently employed by DynCorp International as a project manager in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Also former Blackwater engaged in Kirkuk, Iraq, in February 2006. Posted Camp Lejeune, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines.

CP #3. Born 1976. Former member of the U.S. Marine Corp. Five years in Iraq. Presently runs a painting company in the Columbus, Ohio area.

CP #4. Former U.S. Marine Corp, former DynCorp International employee. Was at U.S. Joint Forces headquarters for 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah (January 16, 2001 – May 31, 2002). Email was included in bulk “Anonymous” dump of STRATFOR clients on December 25, 2011.

CP #5. Born 1977. Presently resides in Phoenix, AZ. Former Personal Security Specialist with DynCorp.

CP #6. Born 1971. Lives in Johnson City, Tennessee. Served in 2nd Brigade, First Calvary Division. Former DynCorp International employee.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

BC gangsters outgunned again: Thomas Gisby killed in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico

2012-04-28T19:48:00.002-07:00

Canadian Thomas Gisby, 47, was shot twice in the head at close range by two men around 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 28^th, in the Paradise Plaza Mall in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.

(See also Interpol central to Lucier arrest in Mexico for details on the May 2^nd arrest of the Canadian drug trafficker Nicholas Michael Lucier.)

Gisby, who had just placed his order at a Starbucks in the mall, died at the scene. The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that the suspects fled in a Volkswagen Jetta, and that one suspect was arrested by Mexican police.

The paper Noticia Terra has given a slightly different account, reporting that one of the killers escaped on public transit, with Mr. Gisby having been shot in the chest.

Both accounts agree that the weapon of choice was a Magnum 44.

Nuevo Vallarta is on Mexico’s Pacific coast, in the State of Jalisco, only a few miles north of the popular resort town of Puerto Vallarta.

Mr. Gisby appeared to be living quite well. He was a resident of the Green Bay Condominium complex, on the El Tigre golf course.

The (normally very tranquil) Paradise Plaza Mall

Gisby, a well-known drug trafficker, had previously been targeted in an explosion in Whistler, B.C., in January of this year. At that time Gisby and another man were camping in an RV in a public parking lot when someone detonated explosives, apparently trying to kill them. Both victims received minor injuries in the blast.

Police said then that the explosion was believed to be gang-related. Gisby had links to both the Hells Angels and Dhak group, and had been involved in the drug trade in BC for more than 20 years.

The Dhak group has been the subject of retaliatory hits since last summer's daylight murder in Kelowna, BC, of Red Scorpion Jonathon Bacon. Hells Angel associate Larry Amero was also wounded in that shooting.

Canadian police believe the Dhak and Duhre gang, which has also been the subject of retaliatory hits, are involved in a turf war with elements of the Hells Angels, the Independent Soldiers, and the Red Scorpions gang, which is now largely out of commission.

In January of this year the Vancouver gangster Sandip "Dip" Duhre, 36, was killed in a similar hit to the one that took Gisby’s life: he was shot to death in a busy restaurant in Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre.

The Dhak group has been around for some time. In 1998 gangster Bindy Johal was killed in a nightclub. As well, in October 2010, Gurmit Singh Dhak lost in his life in a targeted hit – the second known attempt on his life.

BC traffickers have been active in Mexico in recent years, but it seems they have met their match in a drug market that is quick to settle scores violently.

In Mexico, traffickers don’t fail when they try to blow up their enemies in RVs. That seems almost comical. Instead, they hire a sicario, or assassin, for a few hundred bucks.

If the sicario fails, he usually dies, too, so the success rate tends to be very high.

Gisby is the sixth BC man with links to local drug trade who has been shot to death in Mexico in recent years. The Pacific coast, and particularly the Puerto Vallarta area, as well as the inland city of Guadalajara, also in the state of Jalisco, seem to be places of interest for Canadian traffickers.

(For more detailed info on some of those other killings, see Canadian death in Mexico likely drug-related.)

This area or plaza, has historically been controlled by the Pacific/Sinaloa Cartel, which is overseen by the most wanted man in the Americas, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman.

However, it has been destabilized by Jalisco’s violent and fast-growing New Generation (“Nueva Generación”) Cartel, as well by the incursion of the ultra-violent Los Zetas Cartel, which originated in Mexico’s northeast and Gulf Coast, but is now extending its influence throughout the country.

The Sinaloa Cartel has been fighting off Los Zetas via a sub-group of hit-men known as The Resistance (“La Resistencia”). This group is also sometimes called the United Cartels (“Cárteles Unidos”) because it has included operatives from the Gulf Cartel and Knights Templar Cartel, all of whom are united in trying to defeat Los Zetas.

The Banderas bay area of Jalisco, which includes Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerias, La Cruz, and Punta Mita at its top, is statistically a very safe place for North Americans – so long as they stay clear of the drug trade.

For example, Jacob Semler, 31, of Oklahoma, was robbed and killed two months ago near Puerto Vallarta and – though little is known of Mr. Semler or the circumstances surrounding his death – it has been suggested to La politica that it was drug related.

Mr. Semler, who had lived in Puerto Vallarta for ten years, reportedly stepped out to the store in the Marina area on February 28^th and never returned home.

At the time, a private investigator told the family that his body was found several miles away from Puerto Vallarta. The investigator theorized that it was the police who had moved the body in order to reduce the bad publicity for the resort town.

After several days, Semler’s decomposing body was discovered in the San Clemente area and brought to a funeral home in Bucerias to await identification. Mr. Semler appeared to have died from a blow to the head.

Mr. Semler, who had a wife and child, was working for Puerto Bahia in La Cruz.

Jacob Semler - still a mystery

La politica made repeated efforts to try and determine what happened to Mr. Semler, but to no avail. The murderer has not been caught.

However, one individual claimed to have known Mr. Semler “from my timeshare days”, and asserted that Mr. Semler was a drug user. But this could not be verified, and no police force has specifically connected Mr. Semler’s death with the drug trade, as has been done with Mr. Gisby’s killing.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

SNC-Lavalin: dysfunctional, amoral, and open for business in Canada

2012-04-28T13:06:00.002-07:00

Corporations tend to be craven entities. Why? Because they are financially rewarded for being disloyal to those who do not serve their interests, no matter who those people might be.

There is no better example of this than the Canadian engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin, which has repeatedly engaged in suspect activity for its own financial gain. When it gets caught, it cuts loose people who, up until they landed in hot water, were considered stand-up folks doing good work for the company.

Below is a list of some of the troubles that the firm has faced, followed by an analysis of a few of the company’s issues, and, finally, an accounting of how good business has been in Canada recently.

1990s. SNC-Lavalin, with funding assistance from Export Development Canada (EDC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), lands a big hydro deal in India. Investigators find that SNC-Lavalin’s lack of professional oversight and financial mismanagement results in a financial loss of about 375 core, or $75 million, to the state of Kerala.

2011: September. The RCMP raids SNC-Lavalin’s offices in Toronto as part of an investigation into corruption at the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh.

2011. November. SNC-Lavalin contractor Cynthia Vanier is arrested in Mexico City, accused of leading a plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico. Saadi, the third son to fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was the point person for hundreds of millions of dollars of SNC-Lavalin business in Libya.

2011. November. The day after Ms. Vanier’s arrest, SNC-Lavalin executive Stephane Roy, a financial controller who hired Ms. Vanier, is briefly detained by police in Mexico City.

2012: February. Stephane Roy and his boss, executive vice-president Riadh Ben Aissa, resign or are let go, depending on who is lying. In a statement, SNC-Lavalin vaguely asserts that “all employees must comply with our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct”. Stephane Roy goes dark, and Ben Aissa, in an impressive display of moral outrage, threatens legal action, (though that may now be more difficult, given that as of mid-April has been in a Swiss jail cell).

2012: April. The World Bank, the world’s largest development organization, sets its sights on the SNC-Lavalin subsidiary connected to the Bangladeshi job, and suspends its right to bid on projects.

2012: April. SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime resigns after an “internal investigation” determined he had signed off on unauthorized payments. To date, those payments total $56 million, and appear to be related to Riadh Ben Aissa’s habit of playing fast and loose with contracts in North Africa. As a reward for steering the Titanic into the iceberg, Mr. Duhaime is given a $4.9 million kiss-off.

2012: April. The RCMP raids SNC-Lavalin’s headquarters in Montreal – twice.

2012: April. The Globe & Mail reveals close ties between the Ben Aissa family and SNC-Lavalin’s business in Tunisia, including the use of family property and the hiring of a Philadelphia-based firm Ramla Benaissa Architects, which is owned by Mr. Ben Aissa’s sister. The firm was hired by SNC to plan a $275-million prison and also to rehabilitate lakes in the city of Benghazi, in eastern Libya.

2012: April. The northern Chicago suburb of Peotone, Illinois, remains embroiled in controversy regarding the awarding of a contract for the construction of a new airport to SNC-Lavalin. Governor Quinn and Congressman Jesse Jackson support the project, but continue to be dogged by questions about how the construction would be funded. Jackson has said that the $700 million project would be privately-funded by SNC-Lavalin, and has claimed that funding would be backed by the Canadian government. The government of Canada has denied this.

2012: April. SNC-Lavalin persists in saying that Ms. Vanier was not legally contracted to the company, because the executives who employed here were acting outside of the company’s code of ethics. Morally suspect, and on a weak footing legally, SNC-Lavalin continues to strum the same tune while arguing that it is changing how it does business.

2012: April. Riadh Ben Aissa is arrested in Switzerland and held on accusations of corrupting a public official, fraud and money laundering tied to his dealings in North Africa.

Canada is SNC-Lavalin’s back yard

Now, given that rather frightening accounting of human and corporate folly, you’d think that people would be a little gun-shy on the home front. Three RCMP raids. Three executives let go. Tens of millions of dollars in wayward cash, possibly lost to bribes. Getting shut out by the World Bank.

This is Canada, after all, and SNC-Lavalin is a Canadian corporation. We do things right here. Canada ranks #10 as one of the “least corrupt” countries in the world.

But Libya, unfortunately, ranks #168 (a pre-revolutionary number, when the murderous Gaddafi regime was doling out cash to SNC-Lavalin and its friends). Tunisia, which was ruled by the horribly corrupt President Ben Ali, was ranked at #73, though it is worth remembering that it was here that street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi lit himself on fire and ignited the Arab Spring. India, where SNC-Lavalin got nailed in the 1990s, ranks a pathetic #95. Bangladesh, where SNC-Lavalin is now shut out from bidding due to the Padma Bridge project, ranks even worse, at #120.

That long and rather depressing list is intended to suggest that SNC-Lavalin may be able to peddle for cover abroad, but not on the home front.

After all, the fact that Gwyn Morgan, Chairman of the Board of SNC-Lavalin, is a long-time friend of Stephen Harper’s, surely has little effect on how both SNC-Lavalin and the Harper government have hung Cynthia Vanier out to dry.

Mr. Morgan is a Conservative party supporter and former fundraiser for the Conservative Party of Canada. In 2006 Stephen Harper unsuccessfully attempted to appoint Morgan as chair of a new public appointment commission. Opposition MPs objected, and Mr. Morgan was rejected, largely due to his close ties to the Conservative Party.

Also on SNC's list of board of directors is Honourable Hugh D. Segal, a conservative who moonlights as a senator in Ottawa, and who is seen by many as responsible for improving Mr. Harper’s image to make him more “electable”.

These and other board members were asleep at the wheel as former SNC-Lavalin CEO Duhaime overrode his own CFO and authorized $56 million of questionable payments to undisclosed agents, and as Mr. Roy, authorized by Mr. Ben Aissa, financed Ms. Vanier’s work in Libya.

Duhaime - they loved him in the good times

That same board is still actively distancing itself from Ms. Vanier. This is a feeble position that only confirms SNC-Lavalin’s continued reluctance to assume any ethical responsibility for its actions.

That may not last for long. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently published a Staff Notice, the result of almost a year’s work that outlines its concern related to Canadian companies active in emerging markets. That notice spoke directly to the corporate governance practices of boards.

Specifically, it asked for more transparency for underwriters, better controls on foreign auditors, and enhanced disclosure of risk factors. These actions need to be understood in the context of new corporate regulations such as the UK Bribery Act and the SEC Whistle-Blower Rule, as well as last year’s watershed enforcement of Canada’s bribery statute.

In that case, Niko Resources pleaded guilty under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act in June, 2011, for bribing Bangladesh’s energy minister. Niko was fined C$9.5 million.

Specific to SNC-Lavalin, there could be more leaks to come with regard to fraud and bribery. These actions are rarely secret; almost always, employees other than the principal actors are aware. The problem, of course, is that there is little incentive to speak out, particularly when a lot of money is on the line.

The RCMP may have more work to do

In time, too, we will learn more about the company’s relationship with Ms. Vanier, who was paid $100,000, billed another $395,500, and had a retainer account of about $1 million with funds from SNC-Lavalin. If Ms. Vanier had no legal relationship with SNC-Lavalin, then one expects they would be charging her company, Vanier Consulting, with fraud. Odd, that hasn’t happened yet.

Incredibly, SNC-Lavalin’s behaviour has had little to no effect on its business in Canada. In fact, the company has been on a roll of late -

Some highlights:

2012: March. SNC-Lavalin is awarded the project management, engineering, procurement and construction management contract for Vale’s $2-billion Clean AER project in Sudbury.

2012: March. SNC-Lavalin, with its partner, the European-based construction group Cintra Infrastructures, lands a $1 billion contract to build and maintain Phase I of the eastern extension of the Highway 407 toll road from Pickering to Oshawa.

2012: March. As part of a joint venture with Aecon Industrial, SNC-Lavalin is given a major contract by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to carry out the Definition Phase for the Darlington Retube and Feeder Replacement (RFR) Project. The total value of the Definition Phase is estimated at over $600 million.

2012: April. The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, announces a contract award for 2.5 million to a joint venture between SNC-Lavalin and Aecon Atlantic Group for the design of a new accommodation tower and dining and messing facilities at Canadian Forces Base Halifax.

2012: May. SNC-Lavalin is awarded a contract by AltaLink LP for work on portions of transmission infrastructure projects in Alberta. Industry analysts estimate the contract to be worth about $1.6 billion

As one loyal La politica reader emailed us to say: "Is there not an honest engineering company out there our government could start sleeping with?"

Apparently not.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

The trouble with Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez

2012-04-26T08:02:00.003-07:00

Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez, the lead witness in the case against Cynthia Vanier, is now out of his Mexican jail cell, and he is apparently threatening to expose secret voice and video recordings of Gregory Gillispie, the American who brokered the aircraft lease for Ms. Vanier to fly to Libya.

Ms. Vanier, as anyone familiar with this blog knows, is the Canadian facing charges as the ringleader in a plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi, fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s third son, from North Africa to Mexico,

Mr. Esquino Nuñez is a curious character. When La politica first became involved with the case regarding Cynthia Vanier, we visited Ms. Vanier’s parents on the shores of Lake Chapala, Mexico. One piece of information that was given to us at that time, and that seemed very odd, concerned the role of a married couple: “Bertha” and “Ed”.

Ms. Vanier’s parents did not know who these two individuals were. However, we were informed that Ed was a criminal, and that Bertha – the best friend of Gabby de Cueto (aka Gabriela Davila Huerta), who now shares a jail cell with Ms. Vanier in Chetumal, Mexico – might have planted the fake Mexican voting card on Ms. Vanier.

This card is a key piece of evidence in the case against Ms. Vanier, as it was on her person when she was arrested on November 10, 2011, and connects her to a false Mexican identity for one Cinthia Anne Macdonald Grau, who opened two bank accounts that were allegedly to be used to funnel cash into Mexico to support Mr. Gaddafi in his new life.

We now know that Bertha is Bertha Cruz de la Cruz, and Ed is her husband, Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez. Both these individuals are central to the prosecution’s case against Ms. Vanier and the three other defendants.

Those other defendants are: Ms. De Cueto, Mr. Gillispie’s business partner and Bertha’s best friend, who helped broker aircraft for Ms. Vanier; Pierre Flensborg, a jet-setting Dane who was a business associate of Ms. De Cueto’s; and José Luis Kennedy Prieto, known as a document forger, but who was also at one time a police commander of homicide squads in Mexico City and Hidalgo.

Bertha Cruz de la Cruz is relevant also because she allegedly received an email to her Gmail account from Gabby de Cueto’s Yahoo account that included an attached photocopy of Saadi Gaddafi’s passport, as well as references to his family members.

According to a statement Ms. Cruz de la Cruz gave to Mexican prosecutors, she queried Gabby de Cueto as to why she received the email, and Gabby then allegedly asked Bertha if she knew of anyone who could put together false documentation for Gaddafi, his wife, and their young son and daughter.

Ms. Cruz de la Cruz, law abiding citizen that she is, apparently told Mexican law enforcement that she further challenged Ms. De Cueto as to why she would be asking for that, as it could land them all in a boatload of trouble.

However, the most solid testimony against Cynthia Vanier may come from Mr. Esquino himself.

Mr. Esquino has told the Mexican government that during a 45 minute car ride on September 20 from Toluca, where Mr. Esquino kept the aircraft he leased, to Mexico City, Ms. De Cueto and her business partner Gregory Gillispie spoke of a plot to bring Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico.

This evidence was given by Mr. Esquino on January 9, 2012 – two months after Ms. Vanier and the others had been arrested, and almost four months after the alleged conversation.

In fact, that evidence was given to the Mexican authorities while Mr. Esquino was wanted in Mexico for aircraft fraud. Mr. Esquino was questioned twice by authorities about the Vanier case before he was arrested on March 17.

In Mexico, individuals can be detained for 80 days without charge. Mr. Esquino’s recent release suggests that Mexican authorities are holding off on criminal charges, perhaps because they consider him to be more valuable on the outside, from where he can assist them in building the case against Ms. Vanier and her co-accused.

A plea, a short sentence, and deportation to Mexico

Mr. Esquino is no small time crook. On January 24, 2005 the Southern District Court of California convicted him of conspiracy to commit fraud involving an aircraft. Mr. Esquino had pled guilty, and was sentenced to two years in prison.

When he got out in 2007 he was deported to Mexico, whereupon he was arrested again, only to walk and assume the name “Ed Nuñez”. Nuñez is Mr. Esquino’s matronymic – his mother’s maiden name. Though in Mexico the matronymic is formally carried at the end of one’s name, it is rarely used exclusively. In effect, Mr. Christian Esquino had assumed another identity as Ed Nuñez without technically breaking the law.

Sources familiar with Mr. Esquino’s legal troubles in the United States have told La politica that the fraud charge was the low-hanging fruit – it was an easy conviction, which could then assure deportation upon his release.

But there were real victims. Court documents show Mr. Esquino bilked four parties out of a total of $435,000.00.

Mr. Esquino had an aircraft financing company, Wing Financial, which operated out of the same address as his better-known firm, Starwood Management, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wing Financial, which employed both Mr. Esquino and his sister-in-law, Bertha’s sister Norma Gonzalez (aka Norma Cruz de la Cruz), was embroiled in financial and legal troubles before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the State of Nevada on February 2, 2010.

Interestingly, Mr. Esquino’s sister-in-law was willing to take the fall: Norma Gonzales is named as a “Managing Member” on the petition, but Mr. Esquino is nowhere to be seen.

The trail of tears in this filing is long and soggy: ten plaintiffs, both businesses and individuals, claimed a total of $5,520,000.00 against Wing Financial. The real number is likely higher: two of the individuals placed unknown amounts, claiming assets that were “unliquidated disputed”.

One of the business plaintiffs was Pacific Coast Forecasting (now M C Group Aviation), which was on the hook for $250,000.00. The company deserves some due for perseverance: ten months later, on December 2, 2010, Pacific Coast Forecasting placed a lien of just over $15,000 on Mr. Esquino’s other company, Starwood Management.

As well, on February 11, 2010, a man named Hugo Alvarez cited Norma Gonzalez, Wing Financial, and Christian Esquino as defendants in a suit regarding a property foreclosure in San Diego, California, where Mr. Esquino lived before his incarceration.

After Mr. Esquino’s release from prison he was not permitted into the United States. However, he appears to have continued to conduct business in the United States, and to be using his sister-in-law to front for him via Wing Financial, just as he used his wife Bertha to run the Mexican side of his aircraft leasing business while he was in prison north of the border.

Interestingly, on March 17, 2010, which was about a month after bankruptcy was declared, a temporary protective order was placed by Barnardo Cárdenas Cota on 13 aircraft owned by Wing Financial. Cárdenas Cota has been linked to the “loss” of ten million pesos (approximately $760,000) related to the construction of a sports complex in Los Mochis, a coastal city in nothern Sinaloa, Mexico.

Esquino Nuñez enters the picture - and moves to the foreground

And as a curious aside, included in the 13 planes was a jet owned by Jasper Knabb, ex- Chief Executive Officer of Pegasus Wireless Corp. Wing Financial acted as the shell company that financed Mr. Knabb’s Gulfstream II. In July of last year Mr. Knabb pleaded guilty to securities fraud related to a $25 million scheme to sell shares for bad debt, with the proceeds then shunted over to Mr. Knabb, his family, and friends.

Mr. Esquino’s legal troubles are far from over, despite his release from jail in Mexico. He recently had two planes seized: one in Arizona, and the other in Monterrey, Mexico.

On April 18 his still-active US-based company, Starwood Management, filed suit against the United States Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration for forfeiture and penalties, presumably in the hopes of getting his plane back.

And now he is upping the ante by promising more damning evidence against Mr. Gillispie.

What is he doing?

In La politica’s opinion, he is promising the Mexican authorities he can deliver them a conviction, in the hopes of buying his freedom.

This is a huge case in Mexico. President Cardenas himself has put the credibility of his administration on the line, having claimed that the arrest of Ms. Vanier and others is proof that Mexico, the United States, and Canada have a successful security partnership.

We don’t yet know the whole truth of how this alleged plot saw the light of day, but one thing is certain: the cat is out of the bag, and now it must be fed.

(NB – No information on this blog post derives from interviews with individuals in Mexico, including the defence team, which has yet to depose Mr. Esquino. This content is based exclusively on third parties outside of Mexico, court documents, and La politica’s own investigations.)

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Cynthia Vanier’s Anonymous problem

2012-04-24T09:37:00.002-07:00

The case against Cynthia Vanier, the Canadian conflict mediator accused by Mexican authorities of plotting to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico, rests largely on leaks allegedly from the Internet hacking group “Anonymous”.

As La politica’s Timothy Wilson wrote in the Globe & Mail, the leaked information may not stand in court, because it cannot be traced. There is more to be said about the evidence itself – specifically on email intercept technology and whether or not Ms. Vanier’s company, Vanier Consulting, had a designated server or not – but La politica is holding off on that for now.

Suffice to say that on the surface the evidence is damning, but it also appears to be inadmissible in court. This is the problem with “Anonymous” – anybody can rip off the logo and raise hell.

From the fax sent to Mexican authorities on November 5, 2011

At the time of Ms. Vanier’s arrest in Mexico City on November 10, 2011, Anonymous was in a high-stakes pissing match with the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, threatening to release 25,000 government emails that named Zetas members unless a kidnapped Anonymous member was released.

Back then, the media reports were conflicting, and to this day we are not sure what the outcome was. On November 2, 2011, Britain’s Guardian newspaper indicated that Anonymous had pulled back. Then between the 4^th and the 8^th victory was being announced.

But the alleged kidnap victim was never named, and there has been no confirmation as to what really happened. At the time Anonymous’s spokesman was the Dallas-based hackitvist and sometime heroin user Barrett Brown. (There has been plenty of coverage of Mr. Brown, but the best interview is a year old and can be found in D Magazine).

Mr. Brown was actively involved in Anonymous support for the Arab Spring, but, despite his previous involvement with the Mexican government emails and the alleged kidnapping of a member of Anonymous by Los Zetas, he claims no knowledge of the leaks with regard to Cynthia Vanier.

“I'm actually not familiar with this case or those e-mails,” he told La politica.

It has also been pointed out to La politica that if this were the “real” Anonymous, the group would be a little more attentive to how it spelled its name. In the evidence seen by La politica Anonymous is spelled variously as “anonimous” (from the senders email address) and “Anonymus Group” (from a fax).

“They misspelled anonymous,” Greg Gillispie, who helped broker aircraft for Ms. Vanier, told La politica in an interview. “It didn’t come from the Anonymous group, because they know how to spell their own name.”

However, both spellings are occasionally in use. “Anonymus” is actually the Latin spelling of anonymous and, according to the esteemed Wikipedia, “is traditionally used by scholars in the humanities to refer to any ancient writer whose name is not known, or to a manuscript of their work.” “Anonymus” is also a defunct metal band from Quebec.

Then there is the YouTube post “anonimous amenaza a felipe calderon” (anonymous threat to Felipe Calderon), referring to Mexico’s incumbent president, but even they get trashed in the comments section for not being able to spell. And, as further proof that spelling is fluid, “Anonimous 1495” was an unnamed maker of viols from 1485 to the beginning of 1500.

Of course, it could just be an English spelling mistake because the leakers are Spanish-speaking members of "Anonymous Group Iberoamérica",

Finding the source of the Anonymous evidence is crucial to determining who is behind the plot – whether real, or whether as a frame job. What seems evident is that the source is Spanish-speaking (unless that too is a feint).

Judging by the email “vectors” in the hacked evidence, there are central players who are implicated in the leaks. These individuals are also crucial to proving the government’s case, but are about as trustworthy as Baron Münchhausen.

Loren Berenda, Greg Gillispie, Cynthia Vanier, SNC-Lavalin...And the curse of the NDA

2012-04-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

In the ongoing effort to find out the truth with regard to the alleged plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi – fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s third son – and his family from North Africa to Mexico, non-disclosure agreements, or “NDAs”, have kept people's mouths shut.

They have also let speculation run rampant. Why? Because NDAs can be so rigorous they might result in serious legal implications if they are even mentioned.

We have known since this story broke that Cynthia Vanier, through her company Vanier Consulting, was contracted by the Canadian engineering giant SNC-Vanier to conduct a fact finding mission in Libya last July.

We know that she also intended to do further work for SNC-Lavalin – which had booked hundreds of millions of dollars in business with Libya’s Gaddafi regime – to address possible employee re-integration when the dust settled.

And we have always known that a lot of money was being spent on airplanes.

How much money did SNC-Lavalin pay Ms. Vanier? Sorry, that’s still a secret. The reason for not saying appears to be twofold: it is part of Ms. Vanier’s defense strategy, and the information may be under an NDA.

However, perhaps given that SNC-Lavalin has taken an extreme, and surely indefensible, position – namely that Vanier Consulting had no contract with the company because the executive who signed the agreement, controller Stephane Roy, was acting outside its code of ethics – Ms. Vanier has decided to be more forthcoming.

We know now, courtesy of the CBC, that Vanier Consulting had a retainer account in which SNC-Lavalin deposited more than $1 million. We also know – thanks partially to Greg Gillispie, who handled the plane contracts, but now also via Ms. Vanier – that a nine month, $3 million aircraft leasing deal was in the works.

If this information had been revealed at the outset, it would have eased speculation, which has now been ramping for five months, as to where Ms. Vanier was getting all the money to cover the cost of private jets.

As it stands, the damage is done, with the Mexicans now theorizing that Ms. Vanier may have been financed by other sources, too.

Non disclosure agreements - less information, more suspicion

The same is true for Greg Gillispie. Mr. Gillispie has told La politica that he was working on a deal to supply close protection for a Mexican politician and his family, and that this arrangement has been confused by the Mexican authorities with the alleged plan to move Saadi, his wife, and two young children to the St. Regis hotel in Mexico City.

“This was also obviously one of the times where NDAs were put in place,” Mr. Gillispie told La politica. “Both for the protection of us and even more so for the individual who was seeking our help. Obviously he does not want anyone down there to know that he can't even trust his own government to provide adequate security for his family who was at the time living in the States.”

La politica and others have also sought comment from Loren Berenda. Mr. Berenda ran Envoy Expeditionary Service, a small company that apparently employed only himself and his wife. He was the person whom Cynthia Vanier first contacted when looking for aircraft and close protection. He also travelled with her on her fact finding trip to North Africa in July, 2011.

But Mr. Berenda, it seems, is also constrained by an NDA.

“Your work is comprehensive,” Mr. Berenda told La politica in an email. “However, I am not in the position to make expanded statements in fear that any individual comment might disrupt ongoing domestic or international investigations and/or violate Non Disclosure Agreements between me and various entities. “

The discussion of NDAs can make journalism difficult, and can make it hard for people like Mr. Gillispie, Mr. Berenda, and Ms. Vanier, to defend themselves. However, it can also be used as an excuse, and is certainly no barrier to a police investigation. Nor can an NDA be used as a vehicle to avoid legal liability if crimes are committed.

To attempt to determine how all this works in Canada, La politica reached out to the RCMP.

David Falls, a Media Relations Officer with the RCMP, made the following statement:

Further to our conversation yesterday, the existence and contents of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between private parties might come to the attention of the police through several ways:

* If the NDA is provided to the RCMP by anyone, we can collect it.

* If the parties tell us "we have an NDA", we can note this.

* If the NDA is held in private files where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances, a search warrant can be used to enter private premises to obtain it, if the NDA is relevant to the investigation of a criminal offence.

* If the NDA is in the custody of a third party and we need to get a copy of it for our investigation of a criminal offence, we can request a Production Order under CC section 487.012 if the third party will not routinely provide us with it.

These represent reasonable limits to search and seizure, which are easily overcome by a police force with an interest in determining the facts of a relationship. As well, it is La politica’s understanding that an individual could not hide from the police whether or not he or she had an NDA, or whomever it was with.

Which is to say, under questioning the police could determine whether or not a person had an NDA, and then with whom. From there, they could get a search warrant to secure access.

Given the heat that is now being put on SNC-Lavalin, with the RCMP raiding its offices in Montreal, one might assume that the truth will come out, because any NDA resident in those offices is now in their hands, assuming it didn't hit the shredder long ago.

The RCMP’s glacial response has made this a much more difficult nut to crack, with SNC-Lavalin’s departed executive VP, Mr. Riadh Ben Aïssa, who was Stephane Roy’s boss and who is implicated in $56 million in undocumented payments, having now apparently made good his escape from Canada, and cooling his heels in his home town of Tunis, Tunisia.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Mexico adds Stephane Roy, Gary Peters, and Mahmoud Razwan to list of suspects in Gaddafi case

2012-04-07T22:11:00.001-07:00

(N.B. The piece written below was taken off reports from the Mexican press, and appears to represent the current thinking within Mexico's Attorney General's office. Ms. Vanier's defense has yet to present all of its evidence. It has always been La politica's understanding that SNC-Lavalin was the sole source of revenue for Ms. Vanier's work related to Libya. No evidence has yet been presented to prove otherwise).

The list of suspects being considered by Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office in the alleged plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi – fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s third son – out of North Africa to Mexico now includes the Canadian and former SNC-Lavalin executive Stephane Roy, as well as Gary Peters and Mahmoud Razwan, both of whom are permanent residents of Canada.

As well, the Mexican authorities believe that funding from the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin alone was not sufficient to finance the operation. They are looking at at least two other un-named financiers: one a Canadian, and another a Libyan. These financiers are seen as potential investors – a successful extraction was to have profited those who financially supported the endeavour.

At present the Mexican authorities have four people in custody: the Canadian Cynthia Vanier, accused of being the financial coordinator of the plot; José Luis Kennedy Prieto, a Mexican national accused of document forgery; the Dane Pierre Christian Flensborg; and the Mexican Gabriela Dávila Huerta (also known as Gabby de Cueto). Flensborg and Dávila Huerta were allegedly involved in organizing transportation.

The Mexican Christian Eduardo Esquino Núñez, who provided the aircraft for Ms. Vanier through his leasing company in Toluca, west of Mexico City, is being detained on fraud charges. Mr. Esquino Núñez previously served prison time in the United States and was extradited back to Mexico upon his release. He is considered a key witness in the case.

Stephane Roy was Cynthia Vanier’s contact at SNC-Lavalin, which had close ties to the Muammar Gaddafi regime, and particularly with Saadi Gaddafi. Mr. Roy paid Ms. Vanier’s consulting firm $100,000 for her fact-finding trip to Libya in July, 2011. Mr. Roy was with Gabriela Davila Huerta in Mexico City when she was arrested on November 11^th at the St. Regis hotel – the day after Cynthia Vanier was arrested, also in Mexico City.

New Zealand-born Gary Peters, Saadi Gaddafi’s body guard, has been resident in Canada since 2002. He claims to have moved Saadi Gaddafi to the border with Niger in early September, 2011. The younger Gaddafi then crossed into Niger, where he remains to this day.

Saadi Gaddafi is now in Niger

Mahmoud Razwan, of the Canadian Libyan friendship Association, is an insurance broker in Windsor, Ontario. He was briefly appointed caretaker of the Libyan embassy on Ottawa after the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, and accompanied Ms. Vanier on her trip to Libya.

It should be noted that though the Mexican authorities have named these individuals as suspects, the Mexicans do not appear yet to have enough evidence to present an extradition request to the Canadian authorities.

The Mexican authorities believe that Ms. Vanier’s July trip was actually an extraction attempt, and that a second was being planned. If so, then the second attempt would have been from Niger. This would have been a difficult operation, given that Mr. Gaddafi was under house arrest and wanted by Interpol at the time. Mr. Peters, who apparently had a falling out with Ms. Vanier and SNC-Lavalin after the July trip, is only implicated in the first alleged attempt.

The Mexicans are holding to their theory that Saadi Gaddafi was to be relocated to a coastal resort in Nayarit, Mexico, north of Puerto Vallarta, though they no longer believe that Ms. Vanier’s property in La Cruz was to be a safe house. They also believe that a 2,000,000 peso ($154,000) down payment on a condominium in the swanky St. Regis apartment hotel complex, on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, was for Mr. Gaddafi.

The Mexican attorney general’s office has pushed the plot back to around the time of the Arab spring in 2011 – before Ms. Vanier is known to have begun her relationship with SNC-Lavalin. Ms. Vanier signed her contract with SNC-Lavalin at the end of June, 2011. Her first contact with Mr. Razwan is believed to have been in April, 2011.

Also named as suspects by the Mexican authorities are Gregory Gillispie, Michael Boffo, and Loren Berenda. Mr. Gillispie and Mr. Boffo were business partners, and helped broker the aircraft and possibly personnel out of Mexico for Ms. Vanier via two companies: Veritas Worldwide Security, which offered training to military and security personnel; and GG Global Holdings, which was used exclusively for brokering and leasing aircraft.

It was Mr. Berenda, also known as “LR”, who was first approached by Cynthia Vanier. Mr. Berenda and Mr. Boffo are both former employees of private military contractor DynCorp.

La politica has been in touch with Mr. Gillispie and Mr. Boffo. The two men strenuously assert their innocence.

“Calderon took a personal interest in this case as soon as it broke and he is trying to capitalize on it to the max,” Mr. Gillispie told La politica in an email exchange. “My guess is that as soon as the elections go in July and Calderon is on his way out then suddenly it'll be decided that the evidence isn't enough to hold them anymore and they'll quietly be released.”

Mr. Boffo, who now works for the security consultancy Pax Mondial in Afghanistan, was even blunter in his assessment –

“I do not know anything about this,” he told La politica. "GG Global simply leased Vanier Consulting a plane.”

The Mexican authorities are also looking at Belend Salih Alqassab, a resident of the United States, and Roger Lanoue, an American of Haitian origin who has served in the US Navy. These two men were part of a security detail that included the Romanian Cristenelm Giurgea Nelu and Barrie Rice, a former member of Special Forces in New Zealand. According to flight logs, Mr. Giurgea Nelu and Mr. Rice joined Ms. Vanier’s group when it arrived in Pristina, Kosovo, en route to North Africa.

Mr. Rice accompanied Ms. Vanier on a trip to Mexico City in late September, 2011. The Mexican attorney General’s office says this was to plan for a second attempt. However, Mr. Gillispie, who along with Mr. Flensborg and Ms. Davila Huerta met with Ms. Vanier and Mr. Rice in Mexico City at that around time, has asserted that the purpose of the trip and meeting was to discuss a dispute over payment for aircraft.

The security detail for the Libya trip was led by Mr. Peters and also included Loren Berenda. At $1,000 to $1,500 a day for six people, the detail would come in at $6,000- $9,000. For a 10 day trip, security personal alone would then cost $60,000 - $90,000.

Given that planes were many hundreds of thousands of dollars more – La politica believes that Vanier Consulting paid at least $400,000 in aircraft – and Vanier Consulting only successfully invoiced SNC-Lavalin $100,000, the possibility of secondary or “shadow” sponsors looms large.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Mexican president Felipe Calderon politicizes Cynthia Vanier case during White House summit

2012-04-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

(For recent files on this story see: Mexico adds Stephane Roy, Gary Peters, and Mahmoud Razwan to list of suspects in Gaddafi case, and Mexican officials drop Gaddafi house accusation from Vanier files, and SNC-Lavalin likely funneled large sums through Vanier Consulting, and Mexican officials may be implicated in document forgery).

During a press conference on the White House lawn on April 2^nd Mexican President Felipe Calderon referenced the arrest of Canadian Cynthia Vanier in an alleged plot to smuggle fallen Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi’s third son, Saadi, and his family from North Africa to Mexico.

Standing alongside United States President Barrack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mr. Calderon made the following statement:

“The security of North America is absolutely tied to each of its member states. There cannot be full security in this country or in Canada or in Mexico if we do not have a system that actually enables the cooperation mechanisms to act in facing threats that have no borders and that are transnational by their very nature, and these are the threats that are not just tied into drug trafficking which is transnational, of course.”

This then set up a dramatic declaration providing clear evidence that the trial against Ms. Vanier has become heavily politicized. In the context of the above statement, Mr. Calderon then said:

“And I’ll give you two examples of success stories I was mentioning this morning. One, the attempt to take to Mexico one of the children of Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi’s children. This implied an international and very North American operation, because it was headed up by a Canadian business woman, who hired an American company, which hired in turn Mexican pilots and counterfeiters, and this multinational operation could have been – would not have been avoided without international security mechanisms that we didn’t have before and now we have. Also, being able to avoid the assassination of the Saudi ambassador here in Washington would not have been possible without the mechanisms of cooperation we have today.”

Calderon's statments: no comment from Obama or Harper

Mr. Calderon failed to mention that none of the four individuals imprisoned in Mexico and facing charges with regard to the alleged Gaddafi plot had been found guilty of any crime. He states very clearly that the plan was “headed up by a Canadian business woman”.

Strangely, Mr. Calderon’s argument that the supposed plot is uniquely North American does not seem to carry much weight with his peers in the United States and Canada, despite his grand-standing in Washington.

If it did, then the United States would have filed charges against the American Greg Gillispie, who helped broker the plane deal for Cynthia Vanier to fly to North Africa. And Cynthia Vanier herself, who handled all the money for the alleged operation through her Canadian business, would surely now be wanted by the RCMP.

Instead, the RCMP has yet to file any charges against Ms. Vanier – despite an investigation that has now gone on for months.

Mr. Calderon went on to say –

“So thinking that what happens in Mexico doesn’t have anything to do with the security of the citizens of this country, or any other citizen of North America, is a mistake. We have to understand that we are all tied to one another. Now, security understood in the regional sense in order to understand that, we have to understand where the greatest threats to security actually lay.”

For his part, Prime Minister Harper’s silence on the matter only served as passive acceptance that what Mr. Calderon said was true.

But if it is true, then the Canadian government should be actively pursuing the financiers and intellectual authors of the crime, who would not be Cynthia Vanier. As La politica has previously reported, Ms. Vanier was receiving far more for her work than the $100,000 successfully invoiced to the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin.

These additional monies, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for private jets, and many tens of thousands of dollars for personal security details, would have had to have come directly from either SNC-Lavalin or a secondary sponsor.

If what Mr. Calderon says is true, then why are his neighbours not discussing the matter, or building their own cases?

What seems obvious is that Mr. Calderon has now placed much of his diminished political capital on Cynthia Vanier staying in a Mexican prison. The chances of a fair judicial process before the July 1^st presidential election, and perhaps even before Mr. Calderon’s official departure on December 1^st, are much harder to come by now that Mr. Calderon has stated in such a high profile press conference that the arrest of Cynthia Vanier is one of the great successes of his administration.

To see a video of the comments made by Mr. Calderon, with English translation, go here.

(N.B. The mainstream press completely missed this story. The Globe and Mail, after being in contact with La politica, ran with this post.)

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

Mexican officials drop Gaddafi house accusation from Vanier file

2012-03-30T09:57:00.002-07:00

Mexican officials no longer believe that Cynthia Vanier attempted to purchase a house for Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of fallen Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi, as part of an attempt to smuggle him out of North Africa.

La politica has written extensively on the absurdity of this particular accusation. Now it can be established and stated as fact that not only did Ms. Vanier not purchase a “safe house” for Mr. Gaddafi, she never intended to. Instead, the house the Canadian consultant planned on purchasing in La Cruz, Mexico – located between Puerto Vallarta and the luxury retreat of Punta Mita – was intended to be her own domicile.

Past suggestions, notably by former Saadi Gaddafi body guard Gary Peters, that there was a plan to purchase a house for Mr. Gaddafi in Punta Mita, have been impossible to prove. In fact, they have been impossible to verify at even the most speculative level.

The story of the Punta Mita house was told by Mr. Peters, who is now unavailable for comment, without any evidence to support it. As well, the Mexican authorities have never referenced a property in Punta Mita. They have only included "La Estrella", the La Cruz property, in connection with a possible residence for Mr. Gaddafi. Now they have clearly concluded that such a safe house did not exist – at least not in connection with Ms. Vanier.

Ms. Vanier was arrested before the purchase closed (Photo: La politica es la politica)

On March 21 Stewart Bell, referring to the people who arranged for Ms. Vanier’s aircraft lease, reported in the National Post that they were “accused of conspiring with Ms. Vanier to smuggle members of Libya’s Gaddafi family to an oceanfront hideaway near Puerto Vallarta.”

This was one week after La politica dispelled the notion of such an “oceanfront hideaway”. But then, three days later on March 24, Mr. Bell, again reporting in the National Post, stated:

“A town near Puerto Vallarta was the soft landing chosen for Saadi Gaddafi, the dictator’s hedonistic third son and head of the Libyan Special Forces. To get him there, according to Mexican officials, properties were purchased, planes were rented and passports were forged.”

In fact, Mexican authorities only alluded to an attempt by Ms. Vanier to purchase the house in La Cruz. That transaction was never completed, as Ms. Vanier was arrested before the deal closed.

Sadly, this accusation has been repeated, often as fact, in many other news sources.

For example, CTV reported on March 26^th about an alleged “James Bond-style scheme which involved private planes, forged passports and a safehouse.”

And William Marsden, writing in the Montreal Gazette on March 29, wrote that “Saadi had intended to flee to Puerto Vallarta where he had bought a villa.”

That statement was incorrect then, and it is incorrect now. La politica has sent an email to Mr. Marsden advising that this is wrong, but the false statement still sits out there.

The La Cruz house - hardly a Gaddafi compound (Photo: La politica es la politica)

Of course, on a blog like this, we get things wrong, too. In our last post we referenced the "San Diego Reporter," but the name of the paper is the "San Diego Reader." They contacted us, and we fixed it.

We also say things that occasionally upset people, including our sources. But we won’t keep on repeating misinformation when we have been advised otherwise.

The retreat by the Mexican authorities on the “coastal getaway” theory poses some problems for the case being built against Ms. Vanier. Now, the only active theory for a residence would be at the St. Regis hotel and condominium complex in Mexico City.

The Mexican authorities claim that $2,000,000 pesos (US $157,000) was put as a down payment on a residence there. However, we have yet to see any documentation that the down payment came from accounts controlled by Cynthia Vanier.

As well, the lack of a safe house calls into question the validity of the theory that a full-time security detail was being put together for Mr. Gaddafi in Mexico. That kind of close protection would be more suited to a compound – much as exists in Punta Mita, and in Tripoli too, for that matter – than to an urban condominium complex.

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson

SNC-Lavalin likely funneled large sums through Vanier Consulting

2012-03-29T17:39:00.003-07:00

One of the difficulties in getting the real story with regard to Cynthia Vanier – the Canadian facing charges that she attempted to smuggle fallen Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi’s third son, Saadi, to Mexico with his family – is finding the money trail.

We know very little. On the record, Ms. Vanier was paid $100,000 plus $13,000 in HST by SNC-Lavalin for a fact-finding mission to Libya last July. She invoiced another $395,500, which SNC-Lavalin has refused to honour. In fact, Ms. Vanier’s company, Vanier Consulting, was almost certainly receiving much more than this from SNC-Lavalin.

This is despite the fact that SNC-Lavalin claims Ms. Vanier was never properly contracted to the company. Her main points of contact, VP and financial controller Stephane Roy, and executive VP Riadh ben Aissa, left the company in February. According to SNC-Lavalin, they were acting outside of SNC-Lavalin’s code of ethics, and could therefore not be seen to be properly representing the company.

Worse, the company’s Chief Executive, Pierre Duhaime, was forced out on March 26^th after an internal investigation found payments totalling $56 million to un-named foreign agents. The company believes they were tied to two construction projects in Tunisia, but it doesn’t know where the money went. The company also says it has yet to recover the $22.9-million it had in Libyan banks when the Gaddafi regime collapsed.

The RCMP has now been called in to investigate. They are looking into Ms. Vanier’s relationship with SNC-Lavalin, too, though Ms. Vanier is not allowed to comment on any possible communication due to concerns that she be charged with obstruction of justice.

What is clear to anyone who understands simple math is that Ms. Vanier, unless she was running a charity for SNC-Lavalin, was paid much more than $100,000.

It would seem that the money passed from SNC-Lavalin to Vanier Consulting, Ms. Vanier’s business. Why none of those transactions have seen the light of day, and why they are deemed to be secret by Ms. Vanier, the RCMP, and SNC-Lavalin, when there are two invoices worth $495,500 that all the players are willing to acknowledge, is something of a mystery.

Ms. Vanier made one trip to North Africa in July, 2011. She flew in a Hawker jet to Kosovo, then to Tunisia, and then travelled by land to western Libya. The plane was brokered through GG Global Holdings in San Diego, which then subcontracted to a Mexican-American man in Mexico named Christian Esquino, also known as Ed Nuñez. His full name is Christian Eduardo Esquino Nuñez.

The Mexican case rests largely on testimony from Mr. Esquino Nuñez, who was detained by Mexican authorities on Saturday, March 17^th – he is accused of defrauding the Mexican government of 20-million pesos (about $1.6-million) in aircraft.

Greg Gillispie is the owner of GG Global Holdings along with Gabriela (Gabby) Davila Huerta (also known as Gabriela de Cueto) and Michael Boffo, a former DynCorp employee. Pierre Flensborg, a Danish national formerly residing in Houston, is also involved with the company.

Mr. Gillispie came in contact with Mr. Esquino Nuñez, who had a jet-service business out of Toluca, near Mexico City, through Gabriela de Cueto, who was best friends with Mr. Esquino’s wife, Bertha.

Ms. de Cueto is in jail in Chetumal, Mexico, with Ms. Vanier, and Mr. Flensborg is in jail in Veracruz, Mexico, along with Jose Luis Kennedy Prieto, an alleged passport forger. All four are accused of being part of the plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico.

Greg Gillispie is also principal of Veritas Worldwide Security, formerly affiliated with Veritas Worldwide Solutions, also in San Diego. GG Global Holdings brokered the plane, and Veritas Worldwide Security would have been a source of security personnel.

The reason why the Mexican officials see Ms. Vanier as the ringleader is because she was the financial lead on everything: the planes, the security details, accommodation, etc. She paid Gary Peters – the security guard who had worked previously with Ms. Vanier in Canada, and who had also worked for Saadi Gaddafi – who then contracted and paid for the security detail. This was likely to the tune of many tens of thousands of dollars, given that multiple sources have now told La politica that individuals were paid $1,000 a day. There is a paper trail here: Vanier Consulting paid Mr. Peters by cheque.

Apparently, the airplane provided to Ms. Vanier was inadequate. The National Post has reported that the Hawker jet used on Ms. Vanier’s fact finding mission cost $145,000, not including her six-man security team and their expenses. At the $1,000 day rate subcontracted off of Gary Peters the entire team and its expenses would be pushing $10,000 a day (one assumes Mr. Peters would be earning more than those he employed). Ms. Vanier went to Libya via Kosovo and Tunisia from July 17, 2011, to July 26 2011. By these estimates, the cost of security for this trip alone would be over $50,000.

Saadi Gaddafi (Image: Interpol)

“She wanted an airplane on very short notice. She made the initial payment of $145,000, owed me $81,000. She refused to pay that money. The money she paid was the money I owed Christian. The $81,000 was for brokering,” said Mr. Gillispie in an interview with the San Diego Reader. The brokering fee was then dropped to $51,000.

So, according to that reckoning, Ms. Vanier is already down at least $45,000 from her $100,000 retainer with SNC-Lavalin, not to mention the cost of her security detail. She also owes a lot of money. Yet she was gung-ho for more missions. Mr. Gillispie claims that in early August, 2011, Ms. Vanier said she had to go back to Libya “eight or nine more times over the next 12-month period.”

With this news, Ms. de Cueto apparently called Mr. Esquino Nuñez for a quote. Despite Ms. Vanier’s dissatisfaction with the first plane, Ms. Cueto, Mr. Gillispie, and Mike Boffo, a business partner of Mr. Gillispie’s, flew to Toronto to meet Ms. Vanier. Mr. Peters was present at this meeting, as was Barrie Rice, who had served in the New Zealand Special Forces, and who had also accompanied Ms. Vanier on her first trip to Libya.

The numbers then become huge, with Ms. Vanier wanting “a Gulfstream jet for US$200,000 per month for up to nine months and a smaller Citation for US$100,000 monthly”, according to the National Post.

The Post has also reported that Mr. Gillispie wrote the following in an email to Mr. Esquino Nuñez: “The Citation will be staged in Pristina, Kosovo, where it will be available to conduct emergency extractions out of Libya and Tunisia...In the event that the Citation does execute an on call emergency extract we will pay $500,000 for each trip.”

On August 10, when Gillispie and his partners met Cynthia Vanier at the Region of Waterloo International Airport (Kitchener airport), Ms. Vanier complained that the first flight was a disaster. According to Gillispie, he said he could forgive the money owed if Ms. Vanier would negotiate a 12-month contract.

“I thought I would roll the $81,000 back into the yearlong contract,” Mr. Gillispie told the San Diego Reader. “We left Canada, and we talked to Christian about a full-year Gulfstream and a smaller airplane on-call in Kosovo."

Gillispie negotiated a deal for approcimately $3 million (previous reports fo a $9 million quote were incorrect).

"It took us a couple of days to agree to all the variations that were possible for a contract lasting up to 12 months long.”

This contract was then presented to Ms. Vanier in mid-August, and on August 24^th Mr. Gillispie and Ms. de Cueto delivered a Gulfstream III aircraft and the completed contract.

“Cyndy opted to take the 9-month option and signed the contract for a Gulfstream and a Citation. Gas was on top of the contract price. The aircraft and pilots were left with her. The pilots were directed not to fly her or any of her people until we received the first payment. It was on approximately the 28th that we received the wire transfer.”

Now, according to this telling Ms. Vanier signed multi-million dollar contract. What would Ms. Vanier’s profit margin have been? We are clearly entering into a relationship with SNC-Lavalin, her only client, that would enter into many millions of dollars.

Payments, apparently, were monthly. This is over $300,000 a month in airplanes, and we have now heard that Ms. Vanier was good for that first wire transfer. These numbers had been alluded to before in conversations that La politica has had people close to Ms. Vanier, but none of it was specific. Now we have a solid quote from Mr. Gillispie.

To hear Mr. Gillispie describe it, the Mexico connection is simply a happy coincidence, and a matter of convenience. Mexico has the cheapest planes, and Ms. Vanier had property there.

“During the next month, Cyndy flew three times to Mexico, where she owned property. This worked well, as the plane was registered in Mexico, so Christian could do maintenance in Mexico per law,” he said.

However, at the end of the first month of the contract, Mr. Gillispie claims Ms. Vanier refused to pay for the next month. Apparently, she also didn’t pay for fuel for her three trips to Mexico. Mr. Gillispie then informed Ms. Vanier that they were suspending the contract, and that Mr. Esquino Nuñez wanted to be paid for fuel. To try and come to a resolution, Mr. Gillispie and Ms. de Cueto flew to Mexico to meet with Ms. Vanier around September 22 or 23, 2011.

The problems were not resolved, although Mr. Gillispie claims Ms. Vanier then did “another deal with Christian, cutting us out of the deal,” after which “she flew back to Canada, still owing us money and still owing Christian money.”

That recounting seems a little off: what “deal” could Mr. Esquino Nuñez have done with Ms. Vanier if there was outstanding money owed for the fuel?

Nonetheless, apparently one month of a nine month, three million dollar contract had been paid for. Sums that large have never been mentioned before in relation to this story. Ms. Vanier seems to have had only one source of income for this job, and that was SNC-Lavalin. However, SNC-Lavalin is now in such disarray they claim journalists may know more about their rogue spending than they do. And Ms. Vanier and her family say they cannot speak to this matter in more detail as it will jeopardize her case.

But if there was a plot to smuggle Saadi Gaddafi, it is clear that the intellectual author would have to be SNC-Lavalin. If so, then Mr. ben Aissa and Mr. Roy, who are believed to still be in the Montreal area, would be as guilty of attempting to smuggle Mr. Gaddafi as anyone else. Mr. Peters would also certainly be implicated.

The fact that the RCMP has not detained any of these three men would suggest that they are uncertain as to the legitimacy of the overall plot.

Mr. Peters was let go by Ms. Vanier after August 28, 2011, with a letter of termination having been sent on or about September 1^st. Ms. Vanier prepared her own contract with SNC-Lavalin. The first contract was signed June 29th or 30th. The revised contract excluded the use of Gary Peters’ services.

During Mr. Peters' second trip in August, therefore, he was not under contract to Vanier Consulting. This is the trip in which he claims he helped to move Saadi Gaddafi and his family to the Libyan border with Niger. He has said that payments for this came from “Libyans and Europeans”, and that the move was his idea. He has also said that he was handsomely remunerated.

It is possible that Mr. Peters was paid by Gaddafi loyalists, or by agents for SNC-Lavalin. Clearly, SNC-Lavalin had a lot of money floating around North Africa.

As well, La politica has been receiving leaks that suggest Michael Boffo sent emails from his Veritas Worldwide Security account in search of a personal security detachment (PSD) for Saadi Gaddafi. The pay was to have been $1,000 a day – in line with what Mr. Peters has claimed was being offered when, apparently, a legal effort was afoot to extract Mr. Gaddafi before June, 2011.

(Despite repeated efforts, La politica has had no luck getting Mr. Peters, who has made inconsistent statements, to clarify these claims. One of our sources says he may now be in hospital.)

In an e-mail correspondence with La politica, Mr. Boffo claims neither he nor Mr. Gillispie had any knowledge of such a plot.

“I can speak for Greg and I” he wrote to La politica. “We met Cindi Vainer (sic) for 20 min in the fall of 2011. That's the first and only time we met or talked.”

What is clear is that the money spent on the first trip, as well as Ms. Vanier’s future intentions, could not have been paid out of the invoiced amounts. According to Gillispie, Ms. Vanier said she would have the money on “November 8^th or 9^th”. Ms. Vanier was arrested on November 10^th in Mexico City. Stephane Roy, the SNC-Lavalin controller, was questioned on November 11^th, also in Mexico City, while in the company of de Cueto, who was arrested that day.

If the Gaddafi plot is a ruse, the motive for a frame-up may come from the fact that there had been a falling out between Gabriela de Cueto and Christian Esquino Nuñez.

On October 10, 2011, Gillispie, de Cueto and Flensborg, flew to Zurich, and from there to Istanbul (Turkey), northern Iraq, and Pristina (Kosovo) on a two-week trip to negotiate contracts to import sugar, oil, and airplanes.

“Christian was going to fly us, and we could cut him in on the contracts,” says Gillispie. “He would meet us in Europe. We booked round-trip tickets to Zurich.”

However, three days before the trip, Mr. Esquino backed out. An anonymous call was made to the Mexican government questioning maintenance on Mr. Esquino’s planes, and he thought de Cueto was involved.

“While we are in Iraq, Gabby gets an email from Christian saying, ‘I know you’re behind this. Call your dogs off,’” says Gillispie. “After we get back from Iraq, Gabby and Pierre fly to New York to bridge finances. Bertha [Christian Esquino’s wife] loaned Gabby $100,000 for the trip. Christian doesn’t know this.”

Then, according to Gillispie, after de Cueto and Flensborg finished their business in New York, they went on to Mexico City to meet Ms. Vanier. According to Mr. Gillispie, de Cueto called Esquino’s wife on the evening of the 10th, once she arrived in Mexico City, and informed her about the meeting the next morning with Ms. Vanier. That night, the Mexican authorities receive a second Anonymous email detailing a meeting set for the next morning between Ms. Vanier and Ms. de Cueto.

“That information was only transmitted over the phone between Gabby and Bertha,” says Gillispie, “so it could not have been gotten from a hacked email by the Anonymous group, as claimed by the Mexican government.”

As well, an un-named source has contacted La politica to claim that in July 2011, around 10 personal security detail (PSD) specialists were contacted by Michael Boffo on Greg Gillispie's and Veritas’ behalf. This source has offered information on key players such as Mr. Boffo, Greg Gillispie, and Loren Berenda, who helped broker the plane, that could only come from someone familiar with their activities. It should be noted that the motivation of this source remains unclear, and unless and until the person identifies themselves to La politica, the leaked information will be treated with some skepticism.

According to this source, PSD professionals were contacted by Mr. Boffo off his Veritas e-mail account and told to be on standby for a very lucrative contract protecting ‘a high profile person.’ Pay was to be around $1,000 a day, with travel between Kosovo and Mexico. However, when it was later learned that the person was Saadi Gaddafi the team fell apart, because the job would “jeopardize their reputation and future ability to obtain a clearance.”

Twitter: @TimothyEWilson