Britons held in timeshare raid linked to Mideast terror groups
Three Britons were among those arrested with a man who is said to have helped finance Mideast terror groups with profits from ripping off tourists in Canary Island timeshare scams.
Spain’s leading investigative judge today impounded two 747 jetliners belonging to the alleged leader of the crime ring broken up by the arrest of 18 people
National Court judge Baltasar Garzon said the two planes parked at Madrid’s international airport belonged to a company run by Mohamed Jamil Derbah and an unidentified Russian.
Derbah is one of 18 people suspected of belonging to a Lebanese crime ring that police say may have supplied money and arms to militants in the Middle East.
Police chief Juan Cotino said the gang may be linked to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and the Syrian-backed Amal movement but both groups today denied they had links with those arrested in Spain.
Police said Derbah’s gang raised money by forging credit cards, robbing tourists and making fraudulent timeshare deals, mostly with Britons and Germans, in Spain’s Canary Islands.
They said Derbah was initially guided by ‘‘Goldfinger’’ John Palmer, the British multi-millionaire who is serving eight years in prison for masterminding a timeshare fraud in the Canary Islands.
The group allegedly raised more than £7.5m but police did not say how much of it went to the Middle East.
Besides Derbah, the others arrested were three Britons, six Lebanese, two French and six Spaniards. Two of the Spaniards were a policeman and a civil guard, Cotino said. Only Derbah’s name was released.
The arrests came in raids in Madrid and in Tenerife.
‘‘We’ve filled five vans with documentation and evidence that will be sent to the National Court together with those arrested,’’ Cotino said.
According to a police statement, police searched property companies in Tenerife called Millennium Club Card, Privilege Cream Holidays, Libano Sur (South Lebanon) and Colonial Beach Club, as well as a restaurant named Emir.
The Spanish national news agency Efe said Garzon had also ordered the freezing of several bank accounts in Spain connected to the group. The agency said he had located other accounts in Gibraltar, Luxembourg and Lebanon.
During the arrests, police found several envelopes packed with money of different currencies.
Garzon set a Friday hearing for the 18 when they will be formally charged with extortion, money laundering and arms trafficking.
Police said they knew of no connection between the 11 and eight men arrested in Spain last week and accused of links to the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Centre and Pentagon on September 11.
:: Garzon is widely admired inside Spain as a ‘‘superjudge’’ for his courage pursuing corrupt politicians, drug lords and arms dealers.
He failed in his bid to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet extradited from Britain to be put on trial for murder and torture carried out by his regime.
