Spanish authorities have arrested Mohamed Jamil Derbah, a special adviser to the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, on Tenerife Island as part of a sweeping investigation into alleged corruption and drug trafficking involving current and former police officers.
Derbah, a Lebanese-born resident of Tenerife, was detained on Wednesday and appeared before a local court, which ordered him to be held in custody without bail. Authorities believe he is the ringleader of a criminal network under investigation.
According to a spokesperson for Spain’s National Police, a total of nine individuals were arrested in the operation, including two retired officers and one serving police officer. The investigation was led by internal affairs.
Derbah was appointed earlier in 2024 by Guinea-Bissau’s Prime Minister, Rui Duarte de Barros, as a special aide and a member of the country’s International Relations and Trade Commission. The prime minister’s office has yet to state the arrest.
Derbah, who could not be reached for comment, has a history of legal troubles. In 2001, Reuters reported his arrest in connection with a fraud scheme in the Canary Islands that was suspected of having links to Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Amal movement. He was allegedly involved in a timeshare fraud operation that targeted numerous British and German nationals.
At the time, Spanish authorities said Derbah’s criminal activities were influenced by John Palmer, a notorious British millionaire convicted of timeshare fraud in 2001 and later killed in 2015. Despite previous arrests, there is no public record of Derbah’s conviction.
The recent arrest underscores growing concerns about international crime networks operating in Spain and involving political figures abroad.
