Nero Drinks Left a Stepps House on a US List

Nero Drinks parked its registered office at 15 Cumbernauld Road in Stepps for 180 days, then moved it back to Glasgow. The US sanctions list still names that two-bed house. Companies House now records the vodka firm as active, with an active proposal to strike off.

The 2023 paperwork looked like a new headquarters for a brand already tied to the Kinahan cartel by US Treasury designation and a Spanish money-laundering inquiry. The filing history shows something thinner: a return to an old address, then another exit, with the street left on a US list the company no longer uses.

The Six-Month Headquarters on Cumbernauld Road

Nicola Margaret Morrissey, sole director of Nero Drinks Company Limited, lodged a change of registered office on 3 August 2023. The Scottish company, number SC591051, listed 15 Cumbernauld Road, Stepps, Glasgow G33 6LE. That is a residential two-bed on a suburban stretch of road toward Cumbernauld, not a commercial block.

The move became public with the 2023 Stepps headquarters filing, which framed the house as the new international base for a vegan, gluten-free vodka brand. Spanish police had already alleged the firm sat at the centre of a Kinahan-linked laundering operation that moved more than €200 million in 18 months, at up to €350,000 a day.

Those figures are police estimates, not a court finding. Nicola Morrissey, born July 1975, has not been convicted. Her husband, John Francis Morrissey, known as Johnny, has not been convicted either. The paper trail at Companies House is still public, and it is more precise than the headlines that first attached the house to the brand.

On 30 January 2024 the same register recorded another change. The office left Stepps and went back to 9 Newton Place, Glasgow G3 7PR. The Cumbernauld Road stint lasted 180 days, just under six months. No distillery sat behind the door. No staff records on the public file show a trading floor there. What the house supplied was a legal address.

Nero Drinks Moved the Address Three Times

The Stepps house was not new to the company. Filings show the registered office address changed onto Cumbernauld Road on 19 September 2018, the day after the property last sold. It stayed there until 23 April 2022, twelve days after the US Treasury named Nero Drinks on the Kinahan sanctions list. Then it went to Office 1, 9 Newton Place. Then it came back. Then it left again.

NERO DRINKS REGISTERED OFFICES

Companies House states on the record that it does not check the accuracy of information filed. A director can put a two-bed, a virtual office, or a former home on the form. The register will take it. That is how a Kinahan-linked vodka company, on paper, kept looping through the same two Scottish addresses while its public face was a Costa del Sol lifestyle brand.

The 2023 “new HQ” was the third move, not a launch. It put the house back into the file after US designation, a Spanish raid, and a strike-off warning. Six months later the file pointed at Newton Place again. The US list did not follow it.

Why 15 Cumbernauld Road Is Still on a US List

On 11 April 2022 the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Kinahan Organized Crime Group, seven people, and three firms. Nero Drinks was one of the three. Treasury said the UK drinks company was owned or controlled by John Morrissey, who “outwardly serves as the Nero Drinks’ brand ambassador” and had “given a significant portion of the business to Daniel Kinahan to compensate for loads of drugs seized by law enforcement.”

John Morrissey controls and operates Nero Drinks through his wife, the primary shareholder, who is used as a frontperson for his interests.

US Department of the Treasury, OFAC designation, 11 April 2022

The same action listed known addresses for the company. One of them is still 15 Cumbernauld Road, Stepps, Glasgow G33 6LE. The OFAC search record also keeps a London PO box and a Mijas address in Spain, plus UK company number SC591051 and a Spanish tax ID. The SDN list page was updated on 4 September 2026. The Stepps line was still there.

That is the hangover from a paper move. Banks, shippers, and screening software that hit the US list still get a North Lanarkshire residential postcode. Nero’s own UK file no longer uses it. The house does not have to host a still, a warehouse, or a director. It only has to keep matching a line written in 2022.

Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said the Kinahan group “smuggles deadly narcotics, including cocaine, to Europe, and is a threat to the entire licit economy through its role in international money laundering.” Europol described the Dublin announcement as sanctions against the Kinahan gang built with Ireland’s Garda, the UK National Crime Agency, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Nero Drinks was the Scottish name on that list. The two-bed was the Scottish address.

Johnny Morrissey Remains on Bail in Spain

Spanish officers arrested Johnny Morrissey and Nicola Morrissey on 12 September 2022 at an apartment near Marbella, in an inquiry the Guardia Civil called Operation Whitewall. Nicola was released after a court hearing. Johnny was held. Civil Guard officers said they had broken up the most important international laundering group then operating in Spain, and that a luxury vodka brand promoted in Costa del Sol clubs had been used as cover.

Investigators said the cash did not have to leave Spain in bags. Brokers settled the sums through hawala, so value moved on trust while the notes stayed put. They put the take at more than €200 million across 18 months. A Guardia Civil statement said tax records could not support the lifestyle on show around the brand. The vodka was the shopfront. The alleged plumbing was elsewhere.

THE WHITEWALL CLOCK

1. 11 April 2022: OFAC adds Nero Drinks and John Francis Morrissey, born 20 December 1959, to the SDN list.
2. 12 September 2022: Guardia Civil officers arrest the couple near Marbella under Operation Whitewall.
3. June 2024: Johnny Morrissey is freed on €60,000 bail, with his passport surrendered and travel restricted.
4. April 2026: Spanish officers say the same inquiry has widened to about 20 people; tax liens of more than €130,000 sit on a Costa del Sol property tied to Nicola, who is barred from selling it.

Four years after the raid, there is still no Spanish verdict in the file that made the Stepps address famous. Johnny Morrissey remains on bail. The Kinahan names stay on the US list. Nicola Morrissey remains the only director on the UK company. The Cumbernauld Road house is not a defendant. It is an address that got written down, then written down again, then left behind.

A Strike-Off That Never Quite Lands

The live UK record is a shell. Companies House shows Nero Drinks with an active proposal to strike off. The last accounts on file are for the year to 28 February 2021, and the next set was due by 30 November 2022. The last confirmation statement is dated 31 May 2022; the next was due by 14 June 2023. Both clocks are overdue.

WHAT THE REGISTER SHOWS

• Status: Active, with an active proposal to strike off, private limited company, SIC 11010 distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits.
• Director: Nicola Margaret Morrissey, appointed 12 March 2018, correspondence address 4 Craigpark Terrace, Dennistoun; identity verification listed as due 18 November 2025.
• Charge: One outstanding floating charge created 29 July 2020 in favour of Advantedge Commercial Finance (North) Limited, covering all property or undertaking of the company.
• Capital: £100 on incorporation, 12 March 2018.

A first Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off went on the file on 24 January 2023. The action was suspended on 11 February 2023 after an objection. That pause kept the name on the register, which also kept the address history public. If the company is dissolved, remaining assets can fall to the Crown. Until then the sanctions designation and the overdue filings sit on the same number, SC591051.

A strike-off is an administrative end, not a criminal finding. It does not clear the OFAC listing. It does not close Whitewall. It would only take the UK shell off the books. The Stepps line on the US list would still need a US update to disappear.

The Stepps House Sold the Day Before the Move

Sale records for G33 6LE show 15 Cumbernauld Road last sold on 18 September 2018 for £210,100, as an established building. The same property sold on 27 October 2009 for £150,000. The postcode covers eight households. Nero Drinks shifted its registered office onto that house the next day.

WHAT THE TITLE AND THE FILE SHARE

• The sale: 18 September 2018, £210,100, 15 Cumbernauld Road, G33 6LE.
• The filing: 19 September 2018, registered office moved from Dennistoun to that house.
• The later loop: off the house on 23 April 2022, back on 3 August 2023, off again on 30 January 2024.

The 2018 timing is the original link between a family home and a drinks company that would, four years later, be named in a US transnational crime designation. The 2023 return put that link back on the public file after the Marbella arrests. Neighbours on a short residential postcode did not get a vote. They got a sanctions address that outlived the company’s stay.

The brand had already been used as a public face. Nero Vodka sponsored Hamilton Academical in 2019. Launches and club nights on the Costa del Sol sold a premium image. The UK registered office, for most of the company’s life, was either a two-bed in Stepps or a single office number in Glasgow. That gap is what made the 2023 filing look so strange, and what the 2024 reversal did not repair on the US side.

Newton Place Is a Mail Drop, Not a Distillery

9 Newton Place sits in Glasgow city centre. Nero’s filings call it Office 1. It is the sort of block used as a registered office by many unrelated firms. After 30 January 2024, that is where anyone writing to Nero Drinks Company Limited is told to write. It is also where the strike-off proposal now points.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The UK company: Still on the register, director Nicola Morrissey, accounts and confirmation statement overdue, one outstanding charge.
• The US list: Nero Drinks and John Morrissey remain designated; 15 Cumbernauld Road remains an listed address.
• The Spanish case: Johnny Morrissey was bailed in June 2024 for €60,000; the inquiry was later described as covering about 20 people.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A Spanish verdict: No conviction against either Morrissey is on the public record used here.
• Who lives at number 15: The register of title and the company file do not, by themselves, prove who slept in the house during the 180-day HQ.
• Whether OFAC will drop Stepps: The September 2026 list update still carried the old line.

The vodka company that once wanted a Scottish football shirt and a Costa del Sol launch now exists as warnings on a UK webpage and a frozen line on a US list. The two-bed on Cumbernauld Road is no longer the registered office. It is still the address the sanctions file reads out when someone types Nero Drinks.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on company filings, sanctions listings, and criminal allegations. It is informational only and is not legal advice, a finding of guilt, or a statement that any named person committed an offence. Readers who need advice on sanctions screening, property, or criminal process should consult a qualified solicitor. Company statuses, court positions, and list entries reflect the public sources cited and can change without notice.