HE has lengthy been one of many Costas most feared ‘businessmen’.
A former Manchester doorman, Johnny Morrissey, 62, was this week led out of his personal entrance door in handcuffs.
The infamous boss of Nero Vodka, John Francis Morrissey – nicknamed Johnny Money – is accused of laundering €200 million in an enormous blow towards the Kinahan medication cartel.
The expat of 20 years is claimed to be the enforcer of the Irish crime clan, which has terrorised the Costa del Sol for the final twenty years, with quite a few shootings and settling of scores.
Morrissey, who frequently splashed the money in a collection of shiny, double web page spreads in his favorite weekly newspaper, was arrested in one in all his Mijas flats.
Alongside his spouse Nicola, 47, he was snared in a large Europol police operation that concerned officers from 5 totally different international locations.
With a helicopter buzzing round overhead, the Rochdale hardman was ignominiously cuffed in a pair of tight Hawaiian shorts, his beer intestine protruding above.
A video confirmed police flip over one in all his varied Costa properties (police have up to now searched 11 in complete) whereas his engaging spouse caught up a finger at a photographer as she was led to a police automotive.
The 4 minute movie confirmed passports, watches and different documentation being laid out on a mattress as he sat subsequent to a bottle of his vodka – which police declare he used to launder his money.
Later within the footage, a machete is discovered hidden beneath a mattress.
It was solely a matter of time earlier than the pair have been lastly pulled in, with Morrissey being flagged by the US Treasury and Medication Enforcement Company in April.
He was named, together with 5 different males, as being a key ‘enforcer’ and suspect within the facilitating and financing of the legal actions of the Kinahans who management enormous elements of the UK cocaine commerce.
The operation concerned brokers from the British NCA, Irish GARDA, America’s DEA, Dutch Politei and Europol’s European Centre for Monetary and Financial Crime.
The Guardia Civil later confirmed that Morrissey was on the head of the ‘most vital’ worldwide legal organisation working in Spain devoted to cash laundering.
In little greater than a yr and a half Morrisey is believed to have laundered greater than €200million (round €350,000 a day).
The cash was transferred utilizing the ‘Hawala’ underground banking system, a casual methodology of transferring cash with none bodily cash really shifting.
A Europol press launch defined: “Based mostly in Spain, the principle suspect and his associates have been in control of amassing giant quantities of money from legal organisations which they might ship to different legal organisations in different international locations.”
The investigation, carried out by the Guardia Civil’s Organised Crime Crew, primarily based in Malaga, and coordinated internationally by the Technical Unit of the Judicial Police (UTPJ), started with a collection of drug seizures in early 2021.
Within the raids, which weren’t introduced to the media, over 200 kilograms of cocaine and round €500,000 in money have been seized from hidden compartments in vehicles round Malaga province.
In a police video launched at present detectives are seen opening up a collection of hidden compartments in autos in a ‘automotive pound’ believed to be in Mijas.
A well-known native automotive supplier was arrested on the scene, whereas others have been seen mendacity on the bottom.
Morrissey and his spouse Nicola led a excessive profile life selling the Nero vodka model on the Costa del Sol and mixing with fashions and celebrities in addition to excessive profile members of Marbella society.
He portrayed himself as a profitable businessman and crammed his social media profile with images at eating places, seashores and events, nearly all the time accompanied by Nicola.
To higher unfold the message he took out frequent spreads in Fuengirola-based newspaper Euro Weekly Information, proclaiming the success of the model at a collection of glamorous occasions.
He lived in a mansion and was constructing a two-storey magnificence and wellness clinic in Mijas Costa embellished with lavish bronze sculptures within the form of deer, centaurs and flamingos.
But, Eire-born Morrissey was raised in Rochdale and spent a lot of his adolescence incomes a fearsome repute in Manchester earlier than shifting to Eire and later Marbella.
Issues got here unstuck when he needed to flee Eire greater than 20 years in the past after reportedly being concerned in an try to harm a Felony Belongings Bureau (CAB) officer investigating him.
Former CAB officer Felix McKenna earlier this yr linked him to the try to assault a outstanding Bureau officer earlier than he left Eire having had greater than €600,000 value of money and property seized.
Morrissey was quickly dwelling in Marbella and have become a bigger than life character, identified for his hyperlinks to the underworld, but additionally celebrities.
He was a good friend of the late Freddie Starr, who used to seem in a nightclub allegedly owned by Morrissey in Fuengirola.
He’s additionally suspected of bankrolling the ultimate days of infamous timeshare scammer Toni Muldoon who died in 2019.
Muldoon was jailed for seven and a half years for ripping off bizarre folks to the tune of tens of tens of millions through the years.
The convicted fraudster arrange male relationship websites across the UK, in addition to a timeshare-type rip-off that snared €6.6 million. On his launch from jail he led a low profile life allegedly financed by ‘previous pal’ Morrissey.
Chatting with the Olive Press, a Guardia Civil officer defined how suspicions have been raised about Morrissey and his spouse Nicola final yr.
Whereas she was the proprietor on paper, primarily based out of the Elviria Enterprise Centre, he acted because the ‘ambassador’ for the corporate, with connections to Gibraltar and Glasgow.
The officer revealed this afternoon: “He and his spouse have been spending some huge cash across the Costa del Sol, however their vodka firm didn’t make a variety of revenue.
“Regardless of this, the model was all the time sponsoring huge occasions in Marbella.
“The vodka model launched within the UK, however when the US Treasury Division uncovered it as being linked to the Kinahans, they closed the corporate and moved it to Spain and Gibraltar.”
He added: “Within the UK media they’re saying that this man dedicated 38 murders, however the Guardia Civil isn’t conscious of any of those.
“What I can affirm is that he used to reside in a really unique mansion in Marbella, however when the US Treasury linked him to the Kinahans, he moved to a small residence in Mijas. That’s the place we picked him up.”
A Europol spokesman stated that Morrissey and his associates have been in control of amassing giant quantities of money from drug gangs, which they might then ‘ship’ to different legal teams throughout Europe and the UK.
One other suspect who ran a automotive dealership was arrested in Manchester.
Morrissey was remanded in custody at a listening to in Malaga on Wednesday.
Two different suspects – a person and a girl – have been additionally in courtroom in Spain on Wednesday.
The person was additionally remanded in custody whereas the lady was launched on bail.
He was allegedly in control of offering autos to the gang during which he had constructed hid compartments to move the massive quantities of money and medicines undetected.
The US Treasury Division blacklisted Morrissey final April and introduced a $5 million reward for any citizen providing info on the whereabouts of the three leaders of his organisation: Christopher Vincent Kinahan, and his sons Daniel Joseph Kinahan and Christopher Vincent Kinahan Jr. The trio are identified to have moved to Dubai.
In accordance with america, Morrissey held a key place on the second rung of the clan’s management construction.
The US Treasury Division reported that his position consisted of “materially aiding, sponsoring, or offering monetary, materials, or technological assist, or items or companies to assist the Kinahans’ legal organisation, together with as a hitman and dealer of worldwide drug shipments from South America”.
Proprietor of the Euro Weekly Information Michel Euesden admitted to Sunday World in Eire, she had helped the Morrisseys market Nero Vodka and even secured Nicola a gathering with Spanish division retailer El Corte Ingles, the place the model was later stocked.
She insisted she by no means bought paid by the Morrisseys they usually allotted of her companies as they pushed into the UK. “Each month on my books that debt remains to be there. They by no means paid me,” she stated.
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