One of UK’s most wanted men jailed over plot to smuggle cocaine ‘worth £100m’ in banana boxes

One of the UK’s most wanted men has been jailed for 20 years after masterminding a plot to smuggle nearly a tonne of cocaine from South America to Scotland hidden in a cargo of bananas.

Jamie Stevenson, known as “Iceman”, pleaded guilty to directing the importation of the drug, which was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020.

The shipment from Ecuador – which contained 952 blocks of cocaine within 119 foil packages – was addressed to a Glasgow fruit merchant.

Operation Pepperoni, an investigation led by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency (NCA), was closely linked to Operation Venetic, which has seen hundreds of arrests following the infiltration of encrypted communications platform EncroChat.

The authorities estimated the cocaine’s value at £100m. However, a lawyer for one of the defendants in the case said the drugs could have achieved “a value of £76m”.

Stevenson, 59, also pleaded guilty to being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam, often known as street valium.

He was previously jailed in 2007 for money laundering, with his operation likened to hit US television series The Sopranos – which revolved around the escapades of mafia boss Tony Soprano.

That prison sentence followed Operation Folklore, an investigation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency which used electronic surveillance, undercover officers and forensic accounting to probe his criminal activities.

The agency’s director general at the time, Graeme Pearson, told the BBC that Stevenson “has for many decades now been a very senior figure in organised crime”, adding: “He ran his business in much the same way as the Sopranos ran their business as shown on television.”

Following the discovery of a suspected etizolam pill factory in Kent in June 2020, Stevenson, of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, fled the country.

The banana shipment full of cocaine was then seized three months later while he was on the run.

Police described him as a “dangerous individual” when he appeared on a list of the UK’s most wanted in 2022.

Within weeks of the appeal, he was arrested while out jogging in the Netherlands and was extradited back to Britain to face justice.

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At the High Court in Glasgow in August, Stevenson pleaded guilty to the two charges mid-trial and returned for sentencing on Wednesday.

Judge Lord Ericht said: “You directed a complex operation for the importation and supply of cocaine.”

The judge noted that a vulnerable individual was registered as a director of Glasgow Fruit Market Ltd and allowed his signature and identity to be used without having any knowledge of the operation.

Sentencing Stevenson to two decades behind bars, Lord Ericht added: “I am satisfied that the total period of 20 years’ imprisonment is fair and proportionate.”

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said Stevenson and his criminal associates were involved in drug trafficking on an “industrial and global scale”.

Deputy crown agent Kenny Donnelly said “no stone” would be left unturned in the pursuit of law-breakers.

He added: “It was clear from the EncroChat messages that, as the ringleader, he directed the group.

“The cocaine they were planning to distribute would have undoubtedly contributed to misery in our communities.

“These convictions are testament to the forensic and meticulous work undertaken by specialist Crown Office prosecutors to bring Stevenson and his five co-accused to justice and I would like to commend their efforts.”

Co-defendant Paul Bowes, 53, admitted his participation in organised crime by being involved in the production and supply of Class C drug etizolam at a string of premises, including in Abu Dhabi, London, and Rochester, Kent.

Bowes was jailed for six years.

Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 68, Gerard Carbin, 45, Ryan McPhee, 34, and Lloyd Cross, 32, also admitted serious organised crime and drug offences.

Carbin was sentenced to seven years in prison, both Bilsland and Cross received six years, and McPhee was jailed for four years.

Meanwhile, Lewis Connor, 27, was jailed for three years in July after the investigation found encrypted phone messages that proved he had set fire to properties and vehicles across central Scotland.

Gerry McLean, regional head of investigations at the NCA, told Sky News: “Jamie Stevenson, who was directing the people within the group, was sitting at the top table of organised crime and had contacts all around the world from South America and across Europe.

“And they had little disregard for the safety of the people of Scotland or indeed elsewhere within the United Kingdom.”