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The convicted fraudster who secretly financed Nigel Farage is tied to a Montenegro circle whose members include two suspects charged with involvement in one of the Balkans’ most powerful transnational drug-trafficking organisations, Byline Times can reveal.
George Cottrell’s partner is the younger sister of two men indicted over an alleged operation involving 5,670 kilograms of cocaine – including a man US authorities believe is a senior figure in the Kavač clan.
The Kavač clan is one of the Balkans’ most powerful cocaine-trafficking organisations. It emerged when Montenegro’s Kotor organised crime ring split into two rival groups in 2014; the ensuing conflict has been linked to at least 60 murders across Europe.
Cottrell’s partner Andjela Vukadinović, is also plugged into a nexus of corporate services firms in Tivat representing Cottrell, which administer companies owned by several other Reform UK figures – including Mehrtash A’zami, the party’s former treasurer; Christopher Harborne, its largest individual donor; Gawain Towler, its former communications chief and board member; and Samee Bhatti, its former digital strategist.
That corporate overlap is significant for reasons extending beyond the organised crime connections. The Sunday Times has reported that a company owned by Reform UK’s data protection officer, Mowbray Jackson, unlawfully enabled British customers to move money into and out of tether.bet – a cryptocurrency-gambling platform linked to George Cottrell which was not licensed to serve customers in Britain.
Records seen by Byline Times now reveal a second Reform-related connection to the same platform through Mehrtash A’zami, Reform UK’s former treasurer for some six years. He was legally responsible for the party’s compliance checks on the Cottrell-linked donations now under police investigation.

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George Cottrell has spent a decade inside Farage’s political circle and paid for staff, security and social-media filming while providing the use of his London home.
In 2024, Cottrell’s mother Fiona made three donations totalling £1.5 million into Reform UK and a fundraising company controlled by its Deputy Leader Richard Tice. The Guardian reported that George transferred $2,047,693 to her in three tranches, each arriving between 24 and 72 hours before she made one of those payments. The money passed through US cryptocurrency exchanges and some was routed through money-transfer services.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating whether the ultimate source of the donations was disguised.
The Electoral Commission says that, before accepting a donation of more than £500, a political party must take all reasonable steps to establish the donor’s true identity and confirm that the source is permissible.
The Sunday Times reported that George Cottrell was involved with tether.bet, an offshore cryptocurrency-gambling platform, which Cottrell denied. Filings seen by Byline Times now show that a corporate services firm in Cyprus linked to Reform UK’s then treasurer Mehrtash A’zami incorporated the company handling tether.bet’s payments in 2021. That company is called GT eServices Ltd. The firm which set it up, McMillan Woods Cyprus, is a member of McMillan Woods Global, where A’zami is a partner. A’zami was Reform UK’s treasurer from 2019 to 2025.
“McMillan Woods Cyprus was engaged on a one-off basis in connection with the incorporation and registration of GT eServices Ltd in Cyprus”, the firm’s managing director Angelou Aristodimou told Byline Times. “Our involvement was limited to tha…