Pair behind bars after £3m dirty cash counting raid in Clydebank

Alistair McKenzie, 60, and Daniel Kerrigan, 56, were held after the raid at the unit in John Knox Street in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, in May 2020.

The pair face lengthy jail terms following their guilty pleas at the High Court in Glasgow today.

Prosecutor Leanne Cross told how the duo were involved in the "handling, collection, packaging and onwards delivery" of large sums of drugs money.

McKenzie ran the illegal business while Kerrigan, of Maryhill, dealt more with picking up and depositing the money.

McKenzie had rented the unit supposedly for a soft drinks firm.

Police carried out surveillance there during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Officers eventually swooped, having spotted both men there - McKenzie in a BMW and Kerrigan in a Ford Transit van.

McKenzie had an encrypted phone used to contact criminal associates.

Kerrigan also had such a device that he had hidden in his van.

Police initially found £300,000 in a supermarket bag for life along with paperwork, plastic wrapping and rubber gloves.

Miss Cross stated there was also information "consistent with messages later recovered" which made clear "the organised crime group were moving different types of cash - English and Scottish notes, Euros as well as those from Ireland.”

The court was told there was "no evidence" of a legitimate business being run there.

McKenzie's home in Knightswood was also searched - a cash counting machine as well as £8,000 in notes were seized.

Miss Cross stated that the pair and others communicated on the EncroChat phone network favoured by criminals before it was smashed by the law authorities.

This included McKenzie being told by an associate that there would be "a load" of cash being sent for checking and wrapping.

There were also texts of more than £1m being sent to an address in Birmingham and a similar sum destined for London.

Miss Cross said: "While difficult to assess the turnover of cash at the counting house, an overall total of around 3,768, 575 of notes of varying currency is discussed in messages.

"Depending on currency, total figure estimated to be over £3m between April 7 and May 17, 2020."

The men pleaded guilty to a charge of being involved in serious organised crime today.

McKenzie's lawyer Allan MacLeod told the hearing: "While it is accepted that he was processing this money, the Crown also accept that it did not belong to him."

Judge Douglas Brown remanded the duo in custody as sentencing was deferred for reports until April.