EXCLUSIVE: The key players in John Palmer case Essex Police 'has never spoken to' ten years after his unsolved murder a decade ago today

A "police informant" who worked for murdered John "Goldfinger" Palmer's former head of security claims police investigating the cold case have never spoken to him, despite being alerted to his claims of "knowing the identity of his possible killers" more than three years ago.

Paul Blanchard, 80, spoke as Essex Police today launched a fresh appeal for information to mark the tenth anniversary of the brutal unsolved assassination.

The force was alerted to Mr Blanchard's claims of knowing the identity of the potential suspects after he detailed them in a revised Hardback version of his autobiography Secrets of a Mafia Whistleblower published in January 2023.

Detectives were informed that he was willing to speak to officers and that he claimed to have seen copies of three men's passports who he said he was told were involved in the murder through a source from his time as an "informant" for Spanish police.

Mr Blanchard, a former offshore accountant on Tenerife at the height of the timeshare boom, said: "Three years on, I have not had any contact from Essex Police in any way, shape or form, despite still holding this information. You would think the police would want to at least make some enquiries to rule out a claim such as this, to leave no stone unturned. Especially given the contact I had with people linked to John Palmer."

Mr Blanchard (above in the 1990s) was an offshore advisor to Palmer's former head of security Mohamed Jamil Derbah, 61, on Tenerife in around 2000.

It was about two years after Lebanese Mr Derbah split business ties with Palmer, who was jailed for eight years in the UK in 2001 over a multi-million pound timeshare fraud on the island.

Palmer was known as “Goldfinger” despite being cleared in 1987 of smelting down Brink’s-Mat gold from the notorious gold bullion robbery of the same name from a warehouse near Heathrow Airport on November 26, 1983.

The story of what happened to him, as he went on to build up a £300 million timeshare fortune and feature on the Sunday Times Rich List, is currently playing out in the second BBC series of The Gold.

Mr Blanchard said he received information about a Bulgarian hit squad being responsible for Palmer's murder from a source he acquired after becoming an informant for Spanish police against Mr Derbah years earlier.

Mr Blanchard (pictured above with Mr Derbah) said he started to provide the Spanish police with information about Mr Derbah from 2001 amid claims the latter was also involved in a massive holiday homes investment fraud.

Information provided by him led to the arrest of Mr Derbah, with 17 others, in connection with the alleged fraud in November 2001, although he has yet to be charged.

Mr Blanchard first published the book in December 2021, in which he claimed to have gone on to gather intelligence on other criminal networks for the Spanish police, before accidentally blowing his cover in 2004, after which his handlers "severed ties" with him.

In the book, he claimed to have received intelligence after Palmer's murder that he was shot dead in the back garden of his home in South Weald, Essex, on June 24 2015 by a Bulgarian assassination team.

In the revised version of the book, published in January 2023, he provided more details, including the name of the alleged hit squad, which he claimed was composed of three brothers.

Mr Blanchard even alleged that the same men were responsible for murdering Scot Young and Boris Beresovsky, two men linked to Russia, whose suspicious deaths in the UK have never been fully resolved, and he said were also connected to Palmer.

In the book, Mr Blanchard stopped short of naming the brothers, but wrote in his book: "These Bulgarian assassins, three brothers known in Moscow as Nia Sofiya Tri (The Sofia Three) carry out assassinations on orders from high-level Russian Mafia groups.

"They have specialist skills in administering deadly and untraceable poisons and never leave any trace or evidence.

"They live in Moscow, travel the world on assignments, and have Moldovan passports.

"When instructed to shoot a target - as in the case of John Palmer, they execute military style planning that leaves police forces across the globe baffled by the wall of secrecy surrounding their identity."

Blanchard claims Young (below bottom) and Berezovsky (below top) were killed because of a failed multi-million-pound Russian property venture dubbed Project Moscow.

Berezovsky, 67, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, was found in 2013 with a ligature around his neck in the Surrey mansion he had bought from Young, with the subsequent inquest recording an open verdict.

Surrey Police had found no evidence of third-party involvement, and the coroner said: “I am not ­saying Mr Berezovsky took his own life, I am not saying Mr Berezovsky was unlawfully killed. What I am saying is that the burden of proof sets such a high standard it is impossible for me to say.”

Young, 52, who is said to have helped Berezovsky launder money, died after plunging on to railings below his £3m London flat in 2014, after telling police and friends ­several times that hitmen with links to Moscow wanted him dead.

He had earlier been declared bankrupt following Russian property investment deals. The Met Police ruled it a non-­suspicious death. So too did an inquest in July 2015 that heard Young was suffering with mental health problems, but it found there was insufficient evidence for a suicide verdict.

There have long been suspicions the pair were murdered, with theories their deaths were made to look like suicides. But, a 2018 Met Police and MI5 review of the cases and 12 other deaths of people connected to Russia, carried out in the wake of the Novichok attacks on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018, went on to conclude that they were all non-suspicious.

The Russian Mafia became prominent on Tenerife as various crime groups vied for control of the timeshare business after Palmer was jailed for fraud in 2001.

Mr Blanchard is currently fighting a second extradition bid from Spain to face alleged fraud charges in connection with the scheme that the European Arrest Warrant says was led by Mr Derbah.

A judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court ordered his extradition last year, but he is awaiting a hearing against the verdict at the Court of Appeal.

In 2008 he was jailed for six years and six months in the UK after he pleaded guilty to other fraud charges.

Mr Blanchard insists lawyers advised him to go guilty as the Spanish police refused to confirm his role as an undercover agent, which had brought him into contact with the fraudsters involved, and he will appeal the conviction if he avoids extradition.

Mr Blanchard, who denies the Spanish allegations, has maintained throughout the case that his former handlers are using the extradition bid as a ruse to force him to testify against Mr Derbah.

Mr Derbah was rearrested in connection with the same probe and newer allegations on April 30 this year before a court in Tenerife ordered he be remanded in custody without bail as the suspected leader of a crime ring.

It was reported that Palmer and Mr Derbah (above now and in 2001) fell out in 1998, when the latter became involved in a rival business.

Over the next three years was a “street war” across the island during which Mr Derbah survived two assassination attempts in Tenerife and Paris, according to the 2017 Spanish biography about him called From The Shores Of Lebanon To The Coasts Of Tenerife.

Yet, in an interview with a British newspaper in February 2023, he said they had patched up their friendship and spoke just two days before the murder.

He said: “He called me two days before he died. People think we were fighting, it is true there was a big fight going before, but after he came out of prison we were good friends. When he came to Tenerife, every two days we’d have coffee together.

He said he thought that whoever was behind Palmer’s unsolved murder must have known about a CCTV blind spot when he was shot after being watched through a spy-hole in the fence.

Just weeks before his recent arrest, Mr Derbah was interviewed on the island by former Met Police DCI Dave McKelvey for an upcoming Sky documentary three-part series about Palmer's murder.

Following the interview, Mr McKelvey, CEO of private investigation firm TM Eye, posted on LinkedIn that Mr Derbah also claimed to have never been interviewed by Essex Police.

He wrote: "TM Eye detectives interviewed Mr Derbah shortly before his arrest. Incredibly he has never been interviewed by Essex police."

Another theory about Palmer's murder, and the one of most interest to Essex Police according to sources, is that the killer was hired by the notorious Irish Kinahan Cartel, based in Dubai, to carry out the murder on behalf of another former associate of Palmer's.

Essex Police received intelligence that it was well known among underworld circles that Estonian hitman Imre Arakas, 66, had pulled the trigger on Palmer after being hired by the Kinahans, who deny any involvement in crime, at the request of the associate.

Known as "The Butcher," Arakas is suspected of carrying out dozens of contract murders and is currently serving a ten-year sentence for one he admitted in Lithuania.

Essex Police is particularly interested as it was confirmed that Arakas entered the UK two weeks before Palmer's and there is no official trace of him leaving.

Detectives investigating Palmer’s murder have been liaising with Lithuanian authorities through Interpol to get access to Arakas.

The force also believes a Spanish fraud trial over the timeshare scam, in which Palmer was due to be a defendant after being charged in the weeks before his murder, is also a motive for his murder.

The case concluded in 2019, with a number of Palmer's associates being convicted.

Former art thief Paul Hendry, who now discloses unconfirmed claims about organised crime across the UK on YouTube under the name Art Hostage, claims to have received information about the Kinahan/Arakas theory from at least two sources before it became public.

The force was also given his contact details after he indicated that he was willing to speak to officers about this more than a year ago.

He said: "No one from Essex Police has ever made contact to ask me any questions about this."

Mr Blanchard was told Palmer was, instead, killed by the Bulgarian team, because of Russian organised crime involvement in the Tenerife timeshare scams that he set up.

Mr Blanchard claims he could have more information of interest to Essex Police regarding his offshore activities, which he says brought him into contact with people who invested in Project Moscow.

He wrote in his book: “I met several men familiar with Scot Young and his dealings in Moscow. Young and Berezovsky were involved in numerous deals together, including the ill-fated Project Moscow. Powerful Russians feared that Project Moscow was a scam and that Young and others were skimming profits from investors. Several of my intelligence contacts have suggested that Young was, by this time, way out of his depth. He also knew that Berezovsky’s involvement in Project Moscow would anger Putin and his allies in Russia. My intelligence sources confirmed that Young was defenestrated by Bulgarian hitmen on the order of senior figures in Moscow’s brutal underworld. My sources suggest [Berezovsky], too, was the victim of the same Bulgarian assassins.”

Mr Blanchard said Young “lost his fortune after diverting money from the British Virgin Islands to a Cypriot bank”. He also claims Young knew Palmer and asked for protection from him from the Russian Mafia.

He wrote: “John Palmer was among the many business associates of [Young and Berezovsky]. Palmer borrowed heavily from Russian associates, hoping to make a new fortune, but his plans perished when he was jailed. While in prison he remained heavily in debt to his Russian contacts, who are more ruthless and cold-blooded villains than those Palmer had previously experienced.”

Essex Police was asked why the cold case team had not spoken to Mr Blanchard, Mr Derbah or Mr Hendry.

An Essex Police spokesperson said: “A number of Mr Palmer’s associates, both in the UK and abroad, have been spoken to in relation to this investigation. We cannot confirm the details of individuals.”

The spokesperson added: "In the decade since his murder, detectives have explored hundreds of lines of enquiry, examined thousands of pieces of evidence and explored Mr Palmer’s history and associations in the UK and abroad.

"Despite this, Mr Palmer’s killer remains at large. Now, on the tenth anniversary of the murder, detectives have renewed their appeal for information."

Det Supt Stephen Jennings of the Essex & Kent Serious Crime Directorate said: “Ten years on from John’s death and the pain has not gone away for his family. “They still rightly want answers as to who murdered him and why.

“His killing was a brutal, planned execution – he was shot multiple times in the grounds of his own home.

“Over the years there has been much commentary, media coverage and even television programmes speculating about his connections to the underworld, high profile crimes and his past – but whatever someone’s past John was a father, partner and much-loved by his family. His murder was callous and calculated.”

In the weeks prior to his death in 2015, Mr Palmer and ten others were charged with various offences in relation to a real estate fraud in Tenerife.

That trial concluded in the years after his death and several of those involved were found guilty and sentenced.

Det Supt Jennings added: “We know the key to solving John’s murder lies within the underworld and we have always suspected it may have been linked to the fraud trial.

“In the years since his death a lot has changed within the criminal fraternity, including loyalties, and people may now feel able to come forward.

“If you do have information please, now, do the right thing, ten years on John’s family must have justice and answers.”

If you have information about the murder of John Palmer call Essex Police on 101 or call Crimestoppers 100% anonymously on 0800 555 111 or use their anonymous online form at Crimestoppers-uk.org.