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.
The inquiry, named Operation Pepperoni, was led by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of their Organised Crime Partnership (Scotland).
The probe 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”.
The shipment from Ecuador contained 952 blocks of cocaine within 119 foil packages. Pic: Crown Office
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 shipment was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020. Pic: Crown Office
The banana boxes were addressed to a Glasgow fruit merchant. Pic: Crown Office
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 in 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.
Pills seized during Operation Pepperoni. Pic: Crown Office
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 in 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.
The hidden cocaine blocks. Pic: Crown Office
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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.
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, in London, and in Rochester, Kent.
Ryan McPhee and Lloyd Cross. Pic: Police Scotland
Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 68, Gerard Carbin, 45, Ryan McPhee, 34, and Lloyd Cross, 32, also admitted serious organised crime and drug offences.
Lewis Connor. Pic: Police Scotland
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.
The crash involving a cargo ship and oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast is bad news for the sea, fish and air in the area. What we don’t know yet is quite how bad it will be.
That depends on a few things – but the speed of the collision, clouds of filthy black smoke from the fires and the leaked fuel are certainly worrying.
Firstly, it matters what was on board those two massive vessels.
Follow live: Jet fuel spilling into sea after tanker collision
Analytics firm Vortexa estimates the 183m-long tanker was carrying about 130,000 barrels of jet fuel (kerosene), which is now leaking into the sea.
Jet fuel is not as sticky or viscous as heavier types of oil, thankfully, so it’s less likely to clog the feathers and fur of birds and seals. It can also be broken down by natural bacteria.
But it can still poison fish and kill animals and plants on the shoreline if it makes its way into the soil there.
The Marine Conservation Society has pointed out the site in the Humber estuary is close to some protected areas and is important for seabirds and harbour porpoises.
And both ships will have been powered by a dirtier, heavier kind of oil – likely marine gas oil or heavy fuel oil, though we don’t know the details yet.
Heavy fuel oil is nasty stuff.
Pic: Bartek Smialek/PA
Cheap, thick and tar-like, it can smother animals and is very dangerous if they consume it, and is extremely difficult to clean up. Let’s hope this isn’t creeping around the North Sea already.
We don’t know how much of either the jet fuel or the oil powering the ships has leaked, or how much will be burned off in the violent fires – which themselves are ploughing black smoke and filthy air pollution into the surrounding atmosphere.
And we don’t know for sure what was on the Solong cargo ship and if, or what, will go into the sea.
Cargo ship ‘had sodium cyanide on board’
It was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, said the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – citing a message from the local coastguard.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, and potentially can choke or trap animals.
Many of us have seen that uncomfortable viral video of a turtle having a straw yanked out of its nose. Previous accidents on cargo ships have seen plastic Lego pieces wash up in Cornwall 25 years later.
Read more:
How UK North Sea platforms dump gas
Secondly, the impact depends on the sea and weather conditions around it.
Things like the wind and currents affect how an oil spill spreads in the sea. Scientists can draw up computer models to simulate how the oil could behave.
Thirdly, it matters how quickly this is all tackled and then cleaned up, if necessary, and if it can be.
Usually the slower the response, the worse the impact.
The coastguard has said the incident “remains ongoing” and it has started assessing the “likely counter pollution response” that will be required.
Such a response might need the help of numerous public bodies: the government environment department, the transport department, the Environment Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
So for now the best we can hope for – aside from the welfare of the people involved – is that not all the oil is spilled or burnt, that conditions are calm and that rescuers and those cleaning up can work swiftly.
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