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A close aide to Nigel Farage could be jailed for up to 20 years in America over a plot to rip off drug smugglers.

Peer’s nephew George Swinfen Cottrell, 22, said to be worth £250million, admitted posing as a bogus cash ­launderer for dealers. He told prosecutors: “I intended to keep the money.”

Aristocratic George Swinfen Cottrell is said to be worth £250million but that did not stop him launching an audacious bid to extort cash from dangerous drug traffickers.

The 22-year-old aide to former UKIP chief Nigel Farage posed as a bogus money launderer who offered to hide cash the dealers made through their illegal trade.

He plotted to keep the windfalls for himself. But peer’s nephew Cottrell was snared in an FBI sting after the smugglers he thought he was trying to con turned out to be undercover agents.

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And the former public schoolboy, whose mum is 70s topless model Fiona Cottrell, was last night facing up to 20 years in a US jail after admitting to the online scam.

He was arrested when he touched down in America with Farage by his side.

In a plea deal with prosecutors, Cottrell said of his plot: “I falsely claimed that I would launder the criminal proceeds through my bank accounts for a fee.

“Rather than launder any of the money, though I intended to retain the money. I explained various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered. For example, methods to transfer large amounts of cash out of the US without triggering reporting ­requirements, and ways to disguise the proceeds as legitimate business income.”

Cottrell, who worked in Farage’s private office and was a member of the party’s media team, was arrested on July 22 after he touched down Chicago’s O’Hare ­International Airport on a visit to the US.

He was taken to Phoenix, Arizona, and has been in custody since.

The crook admitted masterminding the scheme through the “dark web” when he appeared at court in the city.

He was originally hit with 21 charges, which included fraud, blackmail and attempted extortion, all of which he denied. Prosecutors agreed to drop all but one count of wire fraud in exchange for a guilty plea. But he was denied bail after a judge deemed him a “serious flight risk”.

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According to court records, Cottrell’s scam began in March 2014 when someone called “The Banker” posted on a hidden, black market website through an encrypted network called The Onion Router.

In statements, prosecutors said: “Undercover law enforcement agents contacted ‘Banker’, posing as drug traffickers seeking money laundering services for ­approximately $50,000 to $150,000 per month in drug trafficking proceeds. Banker agreed to help the undercover agents launder their money for a fee, and then proposed that the undercover agents speak with his associate, ‘Bill.’”

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‘Bill’ was later identified as Cottrell, who spoke to the agents from London over an encrypted chat service, offering to launder the money with “complete anonymity”.

Cottrell instructed them to send $20,000 to an associate based in Colorado, who would pass it on to him. He said it would then be laundered through his bank accounts and passed back to them.

The money, plus a $5,000 fee, was to be posted to Cottrell in cash.

Court documents claim he sent a message to the agents later, ­threatening to turn them over to the police unless they sent him $80,000 worth of Bitcoins – an electronically transferred currency. Cottrell admitted he “knowingly participated in a scheme or plan for obtaining money by means of false or fraudulent pretences, representations or promises”.

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The fraudster, who has ­connections in UKIP and the Tory Party, also faces a $250,000 fine for the fraud charge when he is sentenced in March. In July, Cottrell travelled to Cleveland, Ohio, with Nigel Farage to attend the ­Republican National Convention, at which Donald Trump ­officially became presidential nominee.

The pair were on their way back top London when he was held on a stop in Chicago, handcuffed and hauled off.

Mr Farage’s spokesman declined to comment. But at the time of the arrest he said he was unaware of Cottrell’s ­involvement in illegal activities.

UKIP dismissed him as an “unpaid and enthusiastic volunteer for the party over the period of the referendum”.

But he had agreed to a permanent and paid position running Mr Farage’s personal diary and was working in the party’s press office at the time of his arrest.

Cottrell is reportedly worth an estimated £250million through a family trust fund.

His mum was romantically linked to Prince Charles in the 70s and posed nude for Playboy magazine.

Cottrell is the nephew of former Tory treasurer Lord Hesketh, who defected to UKIP in 2011. He claims he was expelled from £36,000-a-year boarding school Malvern College and skipped university to go directly into private banking.

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Unlike most men of his age he has no public social media accounts. He told the court he lived with his parents near Evesham, Worcs. But he is listed as living in a £2.5million flat in West London.

George Cottrell’s family spreads across the upper echelons of British society.

His mum is the daughter of a lord who lived in a Georgian country mansion.

Her sister married the ex-motor-racing team owner and UKIP peer Lord Hesketh.

His uncle, a former cavalry officer, has inherited the title of Lord Manton and runs the 5,800-acre East Yorkshire estate.

And his dad was a contemporary of Prince Andrew at Gordonstoun school.