Italian customs police have intercepted and seized a shipment of Chinese-made military drones destined for Libya, marking a significant violation of the United Nations arms embargo on the country. The drones, disguised as wind turbine components, were discovered in six containers at the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, following a tip-off from United States intelligence.
The seizure involved the disassembled parts of two Wing Loong II drones, each weighing over 3 tons, with a length of 32 feet and a wingspan of 65 feet. These components were concealed among replicas of wind turbine blades to evade detection. The shipment originated from the southern Chinese port of Yantian and was en route to Benghazi, a Libyan port controlled by warlord Khalifa Haftar.
Libya has been under an international arms embargo since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, aimed at preventing further destabilization of the country’s fragile political landscape. Despite this, both factions in the Libyan civil war have increasingly relied on drones for military operations, with foreign powers supplying various military equipment.
The components’ Chinese origin points to Beijing’s potential involvement in supplying military equipment to Libya’s eastern administration, alongside other state actors like Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Photographs of the seized components matched the specifications of China’s Wing Loong II drones, previously exported to several countries, including the UAE, which has supported Haftar’s forces in the past.
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