EXCLUSIVE: Alleged timeshare king Mohamed Derbah will finally appear in court in Madrid: Politician involved in massive fraud with British gangsters in Spain

ONE of Spain’s biggest timeshare barons – and a close friend of late British mafia boss John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer and murderer Kenneth Noye – will stand trial next year.

Mohamed Derbah, who has long been linked to Tenerife’s underworld, was finally charged in March this year, according to Olive press sources.

The sensational news came to light during the extradition hearing of former accountant and ‘undercover spy’ Paul Blanchard, 79, which took place in London this week.

Blanchard, from Yorkshire, worked for Derbah’s Tenerife-based organisation for many years and claimed he had provided the British and Spanish Secret Services (CGI) with detailed evidence of misconduct.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: British accountant facing extradition to Spain claims he is being ‘silenced’ for ‘providing intelligence that could have prevented terrorist attacks in London and Madrid’

At a hearing at Westminster Court, Spain is seeking to have him retried for laundering money for Derbah between 1999 and 2001.

The Lebanese businessman will also stand trial on “a range of charges” around the same time, Blanchard told the Olive Press today.

Blanchard, who is fighting extradition, claims he secretly worked for CGI (Comisaria General de Información) at that time.

Under oath, he told the judge that he not only passed on crucial information about Derbah’s network, but also about terrorist groups such as the IRA and ISIS.

READ MORE: Spanish police say British expat scammer must ‘leave Spain’ before he is murdered by timeshare owner

One of his most explosive claims is that the CGI ignored his crucial information that, in his words, “could have prevented the bombings in Madrid and London on July 7.”

He is also convinced that the Spanish authorities want to take him to Madrid to charge him as a co-defendant alongside Derbah.

“This is a total violation of my human rights and I will never get a fair trial in Spain,” he told the Olive Press today.

“I will prove to the court this week that I worked for the government and I have the recordings to prove it.”

He is present at the court with a documentary maker from Sky TV and will soon publish a book about the case.

On the first day of the hearing, Blanchard told Mark Summers KC, who represented Julian Assange in his US extradition case, that Derbah had harboured M-25 assassin Noye.

Noye fled in 1996 after stabbing motorist Stephen Cameron to death in front of his fiancée.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Timeshare figure Mohamed Derbah could be exposed as accomplice to British murderer Kenneth Noye claims explosive podcast

Blanchard told the court that Derbah had asked him to help write his autobiography, so he hired journalist David Taylor to write the story.

The tape recordings made during the interviews with Derbah form an important part of his defense.

In the tapes, which form part of his defense, the Lebanese businessman discusses his ties to Palmer and Noye.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Madrid has been trying to bring a case against Derbah for decades.

He was last arrested in 2005, along with seven others, on suspicion of fraud and money laundering in connection with timeshares in the Canary Islands.

However, the police were unable to catch him and are now relying on the evidence Blanchard has collected. However, since 2004 he has refused to cooperate with them as a witness.

Blanchard claims that Spanish intelligence officers, whom he named in court (but whom we will not publish), “burned” him and refused to tell British police that he had collaborated with them.

Derbah was considered the right-hand man of Palmer, better known as ‘Goldfinger’, as he is believed to have melted down gold from the infamous 1983 Brink’s-Mat gold heist at London’s Heathrow Airport. However, he was later acquitted.

The pair reportedly made a fortune in the 1990s from fraudulent timeshare activities in Tenerife. Derbah was arrested for this in 2001.

The events surrounding the gold heist and the subsequent attempts to escape were even made into a hit BBC drama series called The Gold.

Derbah is said to have helped Noye escape from the UK using several planes and helicopters at the time.

Noye was eventually captured while living under a false name in Zahara de los Atunes, in Cadiz, and sentenced to life in prison in 2000. He was released in 2019 at the age of 72.

Palmer was murdered outside his Essex home in 2015 at the age of 64 by an unknown gunman.

He was charged in Spain at the time with fraud, weapons possession and money laundering.

Derbah has been active in local politics lately, appearing regularly on local television and in the media.

His newly formed party, Canary Islandsdescribes itself as ‘a diverse group of citizens, united by a common desire: to improve our community and ensure a prosperous future for all.’

The Olive Press attempted to speak to the businessman by phone and email today, but the mobile number listed on the party’s website ‘does not exist’.

Derbah, who denies any wrongdoing, has never been charged and we are not suggesting that any wrongdoing occurred.