A man is facing a lengthy jail term for his vital role in a £12 million dirty money operation.
Ronald Russell was snared after a Turkish lorry driver was stopped for a random search at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk on 30th March 2023.
A total of almost £230,000 was discovered stuffed inside a mattress within the cab of the vehicle.
Russell’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 found in the HGV.
It eventually led to a raid at Russell’s home in Linwood, Renfrewshire, by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency.
He was found effectively trying to flush incriminating evidence down the toilet.
Russell yesterday admitted at the High Court in Glasgow to a charge of being involved in serious organised crime.
He had his bail continued and is due to be sentenced next month.
The hearing was told how the lorry driver had been halted by UK Border Force officials.
The swoop at Russell’s home occurred almost a year later, on 20th March 2024.
He had asked who was at his door and, when told it was police, 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.
Miss Dalziel said: “The papers documented the movement of large-scale cash covering the period 20th March 2023 to 19th March 2024.”
She added 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 reference to payments being made to “Shug” – an alias for Russell.
Miss Dalziel said the total money marked as moving “in” was £11,890,649, while the “out” column showed £11,186,649.
She added: “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 ranging between £100,000 and £465,000.
Other items were found at Russell’s property, including more than £50,000 in cash 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 text messages, 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.
Russell’s lawyer asked for his bail to be continued in connection with an ongoing personal matter.
Lady Hood said she would take the “unusual” step of agreeing to this, but warned he had pled guilty to a serious offence.
Russell also faces a further hearing next year under the Proceeds of Crime Act.