Mr. Prince has been engaged in military affairs in Libya since 2013, mostly by Mr. Hifter, reads the report. In 2015, Prince provided the Libyan commander with a private aircraft owned by the Hong Kong-based company Frontier Services Group, led by Prince, and which Mr. Hifter used to travel to meetings in Egypt and across the region, the report says.
In the same year, Mr. Prince puts the European Union on a private military force to patrol Libya’s borders and combat illegal migration. The Europeans refused.
Outwardly, the mercenaries claimed they were working on a geological survey or an oil and gas project. The report states that Bridgeporth, a British recording company that was owned by Mr. Prince, was used to produce prequels – just as the company was used as cover for previous mercenary operations in South Sudan and Uganda.
Travis Maki, an American pilot who once worked for Bridgeporth, told UN investigators that he was flying one of Mr. Prince flew to Libya. The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-6, was previously used by Mr. Prince used during his Blackwater days, and is the same model that Mr. Gibson’s character used in the movie “Air America”. The weapons inspectors in Libya equipped it with powerful optical sensors that made it a piece of military equipment.
Bridgeporth CEO Mark Davies denied in an email that the company’s aircraft were being used for anything other than surveys, saying Maki had not worked for the company since 2018. Prince’s Frontier Group, which once invested in Bridgeporth, no longer had a stake in the company, he added.
Mr. Prince has previously seen accusations of violating international law. In 2012, UN investigators accused Somalia’s anti-piracy force, the Puntland Maritime Police Force, of ‘the most shameless violation of the arms embargo by a private security company.’