One of Muammar Qaddafi's sons tried to flee into Mexico on a fake passport, that country says, but authorities there stopped him before he and his family could make it to a luxury home near Puerto Vallarta. The weird thing about the story is that Saadi Qaddafi, a former professional soccer player who's been living in Niger since September, has had his assets frozen by the United Nations for months, so he would have to rely on some secret resource to pay for the elaborate plan. Niger has also granted him asylum and said it wouldn't allow Libya to extradite him, so he doesn't necessarily face justice in his home country nor from Interpol, which has issued a warrant for his arrest. We've noticed most of the reports on this story qualify it by heavily attributing it to the Mexican government. Still, Mexico's interior minister described a complicated plot to get Saadi across the Atlantic, per the Associated Press:

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

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

Poire said the leader of the plot was a Canadian woman he identified as Cynthia Vanier. He said she had been detained on Nov. 10 and is being held, along with three other suspects, under a form of house arrest on suspicion of falsifying documents.

If Niger does decide to acquiesce to Interpol's request to hand Saadi over, the BBC reports he faces charges having to do with his role as a professional soccer player. "The international police agency says he is wanted on allegations of misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at amartin at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Adam Martin