Russell Brothers

Russell White Brothers, Jr. (born June 1937), is an American businessman in Nashville, Tennessee.

He was born into a prosperous and socially prominent family in Nashville, and had considerable advantages as far as education and upbringing. Despite this, his avocation as an airplane pilot turned to cocaine trafficking on a large scale. According to one judge, Brothers became "the giant among giants" in international smuggling. Brothers made his money by flying planes loaded with large amounts of cocaine from Colombia to the Bahamas, then transporting the cocaine by high-speed boats to south Florida and from there to Tennessee, and eventually to Canada. The millions of dollars in profits were directed to banks in Belgium, Gibraltar, Montreal, Panama, and Costa Rica. These funds were then reinvested locally in order to launder the money. The junior Brothers attended Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), a private Nashville prep school for boys. In 1956, his senior year, he played fullback for MBA's state championship football team. The quarterback was Thomas F. Frist, Jr. who later co-founded Hospital Corporation of America and became one of the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans. The halfback was Frank Drowota, who later became the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Brothers was awarded a football scholarship to Vanderbilt University. According to Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning, Brothers' operation included bribing U.S. Customs officials. It included a 248-acre farm near Nashville, a restaurant, two airplanes, two boats, a $600,000 loan to a ranch in Limestone County, Texas, and an aircraft-chartering firm.

As a private attorney before being appointed judge, Judge Thomas Brothers did some work for his cousin, Russell Brothers, in 1986. Federal prosecutors tried to prove that Thomas Brothers knowingly helped Russell Brothers conceal a source of his income and channel almost $1 million into a farm on West Harpeth Road, near Franklin, Tennessee. At his own trial, Thomas Brothers was acquitted on the charges, as well as two money-laundering charges.

Nebel was an attorney who had previously represented Russell Brothers, his former golf partner. Federal prosecutors contended that Nebel invested more than $5 million of Brothers' drug-smuggling profits and then lied to investigators when asked about his role in the case. Nebel was offered immunity from prosecution if he would testify as to Brothers' criminal activities, including setting up companies that received drug money. The testimony resulted in Brothers being convicted in 1993 on charges of money-laundering and additional counts of cocaine trafficking . Also in 1992, Russell Brothers offered substantial assistance to prosecutors, including testifying and giving information in the federal prosecution of another accused drug trafficker, Allan Ross. For this testimony, Brothers' sentence was subsequently reduced making him eligible for immediate release on parole.

Airplane ransom incident In 2010, Brothers allegedly loaned a business partner $12,000 to close on a real estate transaction. After a dispute occurred when payment was delayed, Brothers was seen on surveillance cameras absconding with the partner's $300,000 airplane from Nashville's John C. Tune Airport. The plane was flown to nearby Dickson, Tennessee, and sequestered pending repayment. Brothers is alleged to have set up a meeting at a west Nashville restaurant with the partner and settle the debt. The partner arrived at the meeting with police, and Brothers was charged with felony theft. The belly-landing was soft enough that the plane's automatic crash locator which would have alerted authorities was not triggered. Uninjured, Brothers left the scene and did not notify any authorities. His wife picked him up, and the plane was left as a mystery for the police to solve. A maintenance worker saw the plane, but did not alert authorities until it was still there the following morning. Brothers pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to the weapons charge and also to obstruction of a federal investigation, receiving a 15-month jail sentence.