Daniel Kerrigan, 56, and Alistair MacKenzie, 60, both of Glasgow, operated the scheme from the unit in Clydebank during a 41-day period under the pretence it was being used as a soft drinks business.
However, prosecutors proved Kerrigan and MacKenzie were behind a scheme to handle, collect, package and deliver large sums of money made through drugs deals.
A police search of the premises recovered more than £300,000 in cash from a shopping bag.
Both men were sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on April 8, 2026, after pleading guilty to being concerned in serious organised crime in between April 7 and May 17, 2020.
Kerrigan was imprisoned for four years while MacKenzie will serve five years and two months behind bars.
Prosecutor Sineidin Corrins, of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “I hope that this conviction and sentence sends a strong message to others involved in this kind of criminal behaviour and demonstrates the ability of police and prosecutors to investigate, prepare and prosecute serious and organised crime of this nature.
“The public should be in no doubt that will continue to prosecute individuals connected to this type of offending when it is in the public interest to do so.
“The Crown will continue working with the police and other agencies as a member of Scotland’s Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce to ensure that these crimes are detected and those responsible prosecuted using all measures at our disposal.”
The case arose as part of a wider police investigation into a large, organised crime gang and drugs operation.
Messages on the encrypted Encrochat communications platform favoured by criminals indicated MacKenzie was running a “cash counting house” from the unit.
On April 7, 2020, he received four separate messages saying that a total of £469,545 was being sent to the unit for checking and wrapping.
Later the same day, he told another handler that he had enough vacuum bags to pack a further £930,000.
Within 24 hours, a total of £920,000 was delivered to MacKenzie for packaging at the unit.
On April 14, 2020, MacKenzie messaged another criminal associate that he had 18 cases of cash exceeding £1m leaving the unit for a location in Birmingham.
Kerrigan’s role was to collect large amount of drug money and deposit those sums at the unit for onward delivery.
But their illegal scheme unravelled in May 2020 when police watched MacKenzie arrive at the unit followed by Kerrigan, who was carrying an Aldi shopping bag.
When officers entered the premises, they found the bag contained £300,045 in cash.
Another bag containing plastic wrappings for money was also recovered and found to contain MacKenzie’s fingerprints.
The court heard that various wrappings referred to cash amounts in various currencies and was consistent with messages which made clear a serious organised crime gang was moving different English, Scottish notes, Euros and Irish notes.
Officers also recovered a cash counting machine and a bag containing £8,000 in cash following a subsequent search of MacKenzie’s home.
Based on the encrypted messages, it was estimated that the unit saw a turnover of more than £3m in cash over 41 days in a variety of currencies, including euros and Irish notes as well as Sterling.
Both men will now be subject to confiscation proceedings under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover monies illegally obtained.