SPANISH police have arrested a special adviser to the prime minister of Guinea-Bissau on the island of Tenerife in connection with a sweeping investigation into corruption and drug trafficking allegedly involving police officers, authorities confirmed on Friday.
Mohamed Jamil Derbah, a Lebanon-born Tenerife resident and political appointee in Guinea-Bissau, has been identified as the suspected leader of a criminal organisation. A local court has ordered that he be held in jail without bail following his arrest on Wednesday.
The operation, carried out by Spain’ s police internal affairs division, resulted in the arrest of nine individuals in total. A spokesperson for the Spanish National Police told Reuters that among those detained were two retired police officers and one currently serving officer. The other suspects were later released by the court.
Adviser to prime minister under scrutiny
Derbah was appointed in 2024 as a special adviser to Prime Minister Rui Duarte de Barros and made a permanent member of Guinea-Bissau’s International Relations and Trade Commission. The prime minister’s office has not commented on the arrest, despite multiple requests from journalists.
Efforts to contact Derbah for a response have so far been unsuccessful.
Past ties to major fraud ring
Derbah’s name has appeared in law enforcement records before. In 2001, he was arrested by Spanish authorities for alleged involvement in a timeshare fraud scheme in the Canary Islands, according to Reuters reporting at the time. That ring reportedly targeted British and German nationals and was suspected of having links to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Shi’ite Amal movement.
No conviction was publicly recorded from that case, but investigators believed Derbah began his activities under the mentorship of John Palmer, a British multi-millionaire who was sentenced in 2001 to eight years in prison by a London court for fraud. Palmer, often referred to in UK media as ‘Goldfinger,’ was fatally shot in 2015 in a case that remains unsolved.
Diplomatic concerns grow
Derbah’s 2024 appointment to a senior advisory post in Guinea-Bissau has raised new concerns about the vetting of international advisers and the risk of cross-border criminal activity infiltrating governance structures. The arrest could complicate Guinea-Bissau’s foreign relations, especially in areas of law enforcement cooperation and international trade.
Spanish judicial authorities have not yet confirmed when formal charges will be filed but indicated that investigations are ongoing.
