SpindriftA man who had a vital role in a £12m dirty money operation has been jailed for four and a half years.
Ronald Russell was caught after a Turkish lorry driver was stopped for a random search at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk on March 30, 2023.
A total of almost £230,000 was discovered stuffed inside a mattress within the cab of the vehicle.
COPFSRussell’s palm print was later found on a £20 note among the cash haul.
The 47-year-old was also linked to a piece of paper with handwritten notes, also in the HGV.
It eventually led to a raid at Russell’s home in Linwood by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency.
Crown OfficeHe was found effectively trying to flush incriminating evidence down the toilet.
Russell returned to the High Court in Glasgow, having admitted to a charge of being involved in serious organised crime.
Lady Hood cut the jail term from six years and nine months due to the guilty plea.
A hearing was told earlier how the lorry driver had been halted by UK Border Force officials.
The swoop at Russell’s home occurred almost a year later, on March 20, 2024.
He had asked who was at his door, and when told it was the police, he raced back upstairs.
Russell’s partner eventually let the officers in.
Prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel told the court: “Russell was found in the main bathroom kneeling by the toilet with his arm inside the bowl.
“He was trying to dispose of pieces of paper from an A4 notepad at his side.
“A total of 26 pieces of damaged paper in the form of ledger notes were retrieved from the U-bend.”
The notes were dried off and seized along with the pad.
Ms Daziel: “The papers documented the movement of large-scale cash covering the period March 20, 2023, and March 19, 2024.”
She added that the handwriting was the same as on the notes found in the Turkish trucker’s lorry.
The ledger papers discovered in Russell’s home had columns marked “in”, “out” and “totals”.
There was also a reference to payments being made to “Shug” – an alias for Russell.
Ms Dalziel said the total money marked as moving “in” was £11,890,649.
The “out” column was £11,186,649.
Ms Dalziel said: “Russell accepts that he was including a ‘wage’ of £42,210 paid to himself under the name ‘Shug’ between March 2023 and March 2024.
“This was in various instalments, which averaged around £4,000.”
The notes revealed handovers of cash ranged between £100,000 and £465,000.
Other items were found at Russell’s property, including more than £50,000 and mobile phones.
Photos on one of the devices appeared to show £164,000 and then £196,000 tied up and packaged in his bedroom.
There was a further image of a cash counting machine next to a large amount of banknotes.
Describing the text message, the advocate depute told the hearing: “There were frequent exchanges showing that Russell was counting money and querying discrepancies.”
It is not known if the cash mentioned is linked to any other “commodity” such as drugs.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
