Staff Reporter
WHEN police raided the home of feared Costa businessman Johnny ‘Cash’ Morrissey last week they hoped to find many incriminating items and the odd weapon.
But what they hadn’t bargained on was a series of little black books listing all the payments from his wife’s company Nero Vodka.
The ‘notepads’ carefully detailed all the businesses and gangs the bogus Marbella-based company had lent or laundered money through over the last two years.
Kept by the Morrisseys at their top floor rented home in Mijas, they are understood to list hundreds of cash payments to dozens of local businesses.
“They are now in Madrid and being carefully gone through by detectives dealing with organised crime,” a source told the Olive Press.
“It’s all being done in complete secret, but all those listed will be probed for money laundering and tax evasion.
“There were so many payments that there was simply no way Johnny or his wife could keep tabs on all of them without writing them down.
“They noted the name of each client, the date the money was lent and the date it would be collected.
“This will spawn many other side probes and lead to many more arrests. They are going to regret not destroying those books.”
It was certainly a gift from the gods for the Guardia Civil probe into what they described as the ‘most important criminal organisation in Spain dedicated to money laundering’.
Police from five countries were involved in the dawn swoop on the Costa del Sol gangster, now accused of laundering €200 million over just 18 months, a remarkable €350,000 a day.
It came as the couple’s company Nero Vodka held a string of glitzy showbiz parties at numerous top venues on the coast.
Organised in conjunction with their friends, the owners of Euro Weekly News, they took place at leading five star hotels and restaurants.
As well as sponsoring concerts, they even backed the Marbella International Film festival in 2021 and, thanks to EWN owner Michel Euesden, they managed to get their vodka sold in leading shops, even including Corte Ingles.
Everything was colourfully reported in a string of gushing articles in the paper and online.
As Michel put it at the film festival: “The tagline of Nero is ‘undefeatable spirit.’ And this festival epitomises that spirit, the undefeatable spirit of Marbella.”
She later wrote in February this year that Nicola was a ‘dynamic business woman’. Under a photo of her beside her Rolls Royce, she insisted: “She is focused with a heart of gold, sharp witted and sharp eyed. And she has sacrificed like only a WINNER can. She is living the life she designed for HER. She is our hope for the future – we really can have it all if we want it enough.
“You are MAKING IT HAPPEN and your tribe love you for it.”
While Morrissey was last week remanded in custody at Marbella Court, his wife received bail, believed to be because of her 10-year-old son.
“In short the Morriseys bought the coast with the help of their friends,” explained a friend. “Money talks down here and they splashed it everywhere, but it ended up with them thinking they could get away with anything. No longer.”
FOLLOW THE MONEY
The Morrisseys invested heavily in anywhere or anyone who would take their cash.
They own at least 11 properties on the Costa del Sol, which were all raided last week by officers from the Guardia Civil’s crack GAR team.
This includes two villas, both valued at between €3 and €5 million alone, while they own countless luxury cars and watches.
According to an Olive Press source, police have also found various bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands and they are believed to have investments in Turkey and Dubai.
Locally, despite the links to the vodka company they are believed to have invested in a drying out clinic and they were set to open an upmarket wellness spa in Mijas next year.
The spa features large statues of centaurs, eagles and, of course, Roman figures such as Nero, one of Morrissey’s heroes.
They also purchased garages, including one full of cars, specially adapted for smuggling, was also impounded with its boss arrested.
READ MORE:
- WATCH: Kinahan drugs cartel ‘financier’ Johnny Morrissey arrested in Spain accused of laundering €200 million
- Kinahan mob and Spain-based businessman Johnny Morrissey and Nero Vodka named on US Treasury sanctions list as €5 MILLION…
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