The Lebanese investor Mohamed Derbah, considered the leader of the main mafia clan in Tenerife, was released on provisional freedom on Thursday evening, following a decision by the Provincial Court. This decision came after an appeal against the unconditional prison order decreed by the judge of court number three of Arona, Carmen Rosa Pino Abrante, who is instructing the case. In an operation against organized crime driven by the Internal Affairs unit of the National Police, Derbah was arrested on April 30, along with seven other people, two of whom are police commanders, accused of drug trafficking, money laundering, document falsification, and bribery. The network also implicates the former head of the Judicial Brigade and the Drug and Organized Crime Unit of the National Police on the island, Francisco Moar.
On January 28, Mohamed Derbah arranged a meeting at the cafeteria of El Corte Inglés in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the former president and second president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, to mediate with the Government Delegation and Sub-delegation to stop the National Police from conducting searches in the cannabis clubs controlled by the mafia clan, especially in the south of Tenerife, in Costa Adeje and Playa de las Américas.
The socialist leader relayed this to the deputy government delegate in Tenerife, Jesús Javier Plata Vera, who had also met with Derbah in his official office a few months earlier. The Internal Affairs investigation of the National Police concluded that these cannabis venues, more than a hundred of which have been closed, were a front for the criminal organization for selling cocaine and heroin.
The Lebanese investor was detained on April 30, accused of being the head of a drug trafficking, bribery, and money laundering network. Of those investigated, Mohamed Derbah was the only one imprisoned in Tenerife at the request of the Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Over the years, he had received protection from the state’s security services.
Derbah provided intelligence and information chiefs with data, especially on jihadist groups and illegal immigration networks. Since May 2024, he has held the position of special advisor to the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau for governance and international cooperation affairs. Guinea-Bissau is considered a narco-state used by Mexican and Colombian cartels as a base of operations for drug transfer from America to Europe.
Derbah arrived in Tenerife in the late 1980s and served as the security chief for the deceased British mobster John Palmer, the UK’s most sought-after criminal, for more than a decade. In November 2001, in an operation by the National Court coordinated by then-judge Baltasar Garzón, Derbah was arrested in what was considered the largest anti-mafia operation in Spain until then.
Derbah led this organization, according to Garzón, which had over 600 million euros seized, spread across accounts in tax havens, including a plane, a Boeing 757 with a capacity for 250 passengers, located on one of Barajas’ runways.
Despite the spectacular anti-mafia operation—to transport all the seized material from Tenerife to Madrid, to the National Court, required five trucks and a military aircraft—Derbah was released months later due to an erroneous instruction by Baltasar Garzón.
The Provincial Court of Tenerife’s resolution that now releases Mohamed Derbah with charges is understood only from a legal point of view because the magistrates believe there is no flight risk. They understand that Mohamed has roots on the island, there is no risk of evidence destruction, nor can he hinder the investigation of a case on which the investigating judge of court number three of Arona has already lifted the summary secrecy.
The conversation of Derbah with Matos caused an internal crisis within the National Police leadership when the talk was leaked, recorded in a confidential report by the Internal Affairs Unit, which, together with the Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office, were the case initiators.
Internal Affairs investigators stated in that report that there were sufficient indications to demonstrate Gustavo Matos’ connection to the criminal organization, although no charges have been filed against the socialist leader by the judge.
Similarly, no charges have been filed against Francisco Moar’s partner, former anti-drug prosecutor in Arona, now at the Provincial Court of La Coruña, Sandra Fagil Fraga, whom National Police Internal Affairs agents also link to the criminal organization led by Mohamed Derbah.
During a search of Francisco Moar’s home in La Coruña, agents found 145 grams of cocaine. Nevertheless, the Galicia Regional Police Headquarters decided to release the former head of the Tenerife Judicial Brigade, who initially led the investigations of the “Tito Berni” case, without presenting him before the judge in charge in Arona.
