Mexico charges Canadian, others in Qaddafi son plot

A Canadian woman help in connection with an audacious bid by a son of ex-Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to smuggle himself into Mexico has been formally charged, along with three alleged accomplices, an official said Wednesday. Mexico’s Assistant Attorney General Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas said authorities charged Cynthia Vanier, a Dane and two Mexicans on Jan. 28 for attempted trafficking of undocumented people, organized crime and falsifying official documents. A fifth, fugitive suspect has not been identified. Mexican officials said in December they had uncovered an elaborate plan, at the height of pro-democracy protests in Libya, to bring Saadi Qaddafi and other relatives into Mexico on false papers. The plan failed “because the pilots didn’t accept to land in secret” in Libya, Salinas told a news conference Wednesday. Salinas also said Vanier had complained of mistreatment during her detention in Mexico and that an official had been identified and punished in relation to the complaint. Vanier and Mexican Gabriela Davila were sent to Chetumal jail, in southeast Mexico while Dane Christian Flenborg and Mexican Jose Luis Kennedy Prieto were sent to a jail in eastern Veracruz, Salinas said.