Anything that will stop the flow of weapons to Libya Dawn is a good thing. They are an unsavory lot closely linked to Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi the listed terror group that took part in the killing of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 12 2012. There is hard evidencethat Libya Dawn funds the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council the umbrella group of terrorists that includes Ansar. Libya Dawn regularly sends shipments of weapons and ammunition by sea from Tripoli to Benghazi to re-supply Ansar and other terror groups including IS who are fighting the Libyan National Army there. The internationally recognized Libyan government is based in the eastern cities of Bayda and Tobruk and controls the east and some of the south; Libya Dawn controls Tripoli and most of the coast from Misrata to the Tunisian border including Zwara.

To this day despite its financing of Ansar and its complicity in the smuggling trades the UN and EU consider Libya Dawn as a legitimate negotiating partner in peace talks with the internationally recognized government. And it looks to many Libyans as though the EU does not want to act against the diesel smuggling and arms trafficking that allows the human smugglers the space to operate.

'The Italians want to stop this migrant business' said a Zwara citizen 'Bashir' who is one of a small group who are discreetly acting against the smugglers. 'But they don't care about the other smuggling. We want to stop all! I have met with people from Italian embassy (to Libya now situated in Tunis) five or six times. They know the names of all the smugglers.'

As Bashir (real name withheld to protect him) and others explain a group of interlinked crime families similar to Italian Mafia families and including ties to them handles human trafficking diesel smuggling drug smuggling and weapons importation. The kingpins have to be taken down — otherwise people who specialize in human trafficking will just shift to cocaine or weapons or alcohol smuggling for awhile. (Diesel smuggling is the only business that requires specialized ships.) Tolerating one kind of smuggling is like allowing an American Mafia family to continue to control illegal gambling and drug dealing but to crack down only on prostitution. But many Zwara people think the Europeans don't really care about any illicit commerce except that which deposits unwanted migrants on their shores.

As evidence for this Bashir points to the fact that Zwara's smuggling king is a shareholder in and a director of a Malta company and Malta is an EU country.

The smuggling kingpin is Fahmi Slim Mousa Ben Khalifa aka Fahmi Slim. Slim a dark-skinned Zwara native said to be about 45 served a few years of a 15-year sentence for drug smuggling in Gaddafi days before the revolution opened the prisons. Now he is so powerful that part of the harbor in Zwara is known simply as 'Fahmi Slim's harbor.' While he is not directly involved with human smuggling currently locals say that he works with some of the human smugglers in other illegal ventures.

Editor’s note: an official of an international agency confirms that Fahmi Slim is involved in fuel-smuggling activities in Libya and is known to French Maltese and Italian authorities as a person of interest.

The EU could put pressure on Slim and anyone he controls easily: Fahmi Slim is a partner in and director of the Maltese corporation ADJ Trading Ltd. ADJ under its old name of ADJ Swordfish also owns a tanker called Basbosa Star that has a history of movements that suggest diesel smuggling. As Zwara does not have an oil terminalthe nearest one is in Zawia 100km eastany tankers that call at its port are ipso facto suspect.Asia Times editors have seen evidence linking the Basbosa Star and its sister ship the tanker Amazigh F in suspicious activity.

Now new documents (1) also show Slim's name on a ship that is being sold with the permission of the Tripoli-based Libya Dawn anti-government.The ship carrying the IMO number 7900522 was impounded in Misrata Libya for diesel smuggling years ago in 2008 or 2009. It remained in Misrata harbor even after Gaddafi's fall slowly decaying until this spring when the Libya Dawn coalition that controls Misrata decided it wanted the ship — now derelict — removed.

The vessel is shown on the shipping website Equasis as owned by one 'Benkhalifa FSM' since May 22 2015. That is Fahmi Slim's full legal name. Each ship has a unique IMO number from build to scrap so it is an important way to identify ships after name changes. On Equasis the name of the vessel numbered 7900522 is given as Tiuboda 1. Tiuboda is near Zwara and Fahmi Slim is chairman of a Libyan company named Tiuboda Oil Services #41992.