FIVE MEN GUILTY OF ORGANISED CRIME IN £4M COCAINE AND MONEY LAUNDERING RING

Five men have pleaded guilty to serious organised crime following a major police investigation that uncovered a £4m cocaine and dirty money operation. Ian McIntyre, Kieran Doherty, Calum McKelvie, Jack Sanderson and Martin Tracey were arrested during Operation Silhouette in 2024. The High Court in Glasgow heard that the charges covered activities spanning 2023 and 2024, with all five remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month. The investigation began when detectives discovered a drugs laboratory set up in a bedroom of a flat in Glasgow's Lambhill.

The gang operated a money laundering network using a safe house in Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, where large cash amounts were received and transferred to finance drug manufacture and supply. McIntyre was regularly observed carrying weighted bags to and from the property, with surveillance showing him receiving or delivering bags to associates later found with substantial sums of cash. McKelvie, Sanderson and Tracey worked as couriers within the operation. In May and June 2023, separate cash handovers totalled £100,000, £67,020 and £51,110, with McIntyre meeting a criminal associate at a Glasgow west end café where police overheard discussion of "trebling" money.

Police identified a large cash transfer to a silver Vauxhall Corsa driver on the M74 southbound on 8 March 2024. Officers stopped the vehicle and recovered £199,530 from inside. Prosecutor Derick Nelson told the court the indictment formed part of a larger covert operation targeting individuals involved in large-scale illicit drug supply and cash laundering.