Notorious gangland figure admits masterminding worldwide drug cartel - using bananas

Crime boss Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson has admitted masterminding a worldwide multi million pound drug cartel.

Stevenson dramatically entered guilty pleas on day five of the trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

It came two years after he was arrested while out jogging in the Netherlands following a massive manhunt to capture the 59 year old and bring him to justice.

READ MORE: Man accused of hiding cocaine in fruit sent to Glasgow.

Almost £80m of cocaine was smuggled from South America inside what appeared to be shipments of bananas addressed to a fruit merchants in Glasgow.

Prosecutors said the huge trafficking operation spanned the UK, Spain, Ecuador and the luxury Nurai Island Resort in Abu Dhabi.

Stevenson was also central to a massive "pill factory" which churned out millions of street Valium tablets.

Stevenson was already one of Scotland's most notorious gangland figures.

He was charged in 2001 with the murder of his best man Tony McGovern in 2001, but the case was later dropped.

Stevenson was then jailed for more than 12 years in 2007 after laundering more than £1m of dirty money.

He was freed in 2014, but soon returned to crime at a worldwide level.

The gangster and five associates are all now behind bars after being snared as part of the joint Police Scotland and National Crime Agency probe Operation Pepperoni.

READ MORE: Former Lanarkshire cocaine user issues warning about damage the substance can do to nose.

The smashing of the EncroChat phone network - favoured by criminals - also lead to their downfall after scores of messages revealed what they were doing.

Stevenson today pleaded guilty - via his KC Thomas Ross - to a charge of being involved in the importation and supply of cocaine between January 25 and September 21 2020.

Prosecutors stated this involved the smuggling of cocaine "in deliveries of imported fruit" destined for the "Glasgow Fruit Market" at an address in the city's Townhead.

Dirty cash was also used to fund the set-up involving the purchase of equipment, leasing premises, buying cars, registering company directors under fake names.

Stevenson pleaded guilty to a further charge of being involved in Serious Organised Crime relating to the production and supply of Etizolam - commonly known as street Valium.

Fruit merchant David Bilsland, 67, today also admitted being involved in the cocaine smuggling.

Stevenson was joined in the dock alongside his stepson Gerard Carbin, 45, who admitted a charge of being involved in serious organised crime involving etizolam between March and June 2020.

Ryan McPhee, 34, and Paul Bowes, 53, also pled guilty on identical terms.

A number of locations are listed in the charge in Scotland, England and Abu Dhabi.

It is also said they were part of the concealing, transfer and possession of "criminal property" described as money.

Lloyd Cross, 32, pled guilty before the trial started to being involved in serious organised crime involving cocaine.

Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC said: "The Crown accepts the pleas tendered."

Co-accused Garry McIntyre, 43, had his not guilty pleas accepted by the Crown.

All the men were remanded in custody pending sentencing next week before Judge Lord Ericht.

Prosecutors had initially listed a 14 page document of charges spanning between January and September 2020.

The value of the cocaine in relation to the matter was £76 million while the eitizolam seized was £3 million.

The court heard from National Crime Agency (NCA) senior officer Michael Miller, 56, who was tasked with searching the four pallets of banana boxes destined for Glasgow Fruit Market in the city's Townhead.

The haul was seized by Border Force teams in Dover in September 2020.

Mr Miller claimed that it took him and his team three days to search 118 foils of cocaine which had a purity of no less than 73%.

Mr Miller explained that within 40 individual packages, there were eight blocks of the drug weighing one kilo each which they nicknamed "bags of sugar."

The blocks were wrapped in different coloured foil - red, blue and black - with some of the wrappers bound together with a "tar like" substance.

First offender Bilsland's former refrigerator engineer Andrew Wilson told jurors that he fitted a banana ripening machine as well as a cold room at the premises which was raided by police in June 2020.

Mr Wilson recalled visiting Bilsland a day or two later and his police statement was read to the jury.

Mr Wilson said: “David was looking terrible, like he looked as if he had seen a ghost. He was a broken man.

“He was normally upbeat and bubbly - I had never seen him like that. He was about to start crying.

“He told me he was f***ed and had done something stupid and he put his hands up to it and he was going to jail for a long time and that the police arrested him.

“I can’t remember exactly but it was to do with drugs but drugs were mentioned.”

Stevenson was wanted in relation to a pill factory in Kent which produced 28 million of etizolam (street valium) tablets which was raided by police in June 2020.

Stevenson was arrested, however, he was granted bail and was able to leave the country.

Mr Prentice told the court today "I understand he was arrested in February 2021 while he was out jogging in the Netherlands."

Stevenson had lodged a special defence of incrimination against a number of men including gangster James White.

White was jailed for almost 10 years in August 2023 after he admitted his involvement in serious organised crime.

White headed up a gang run by crime brothers Barry and James Gillespie after they disappeared.

The gang operated on an "international scale" in countries including Italy, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Brazil.

Police believe the Gillespies were killed while on the run in South America.

Stevenson also tried to incriminate John Gurie who was given a six year sentence in 2021 for dealing £1.6 million of cocaine.

The trial was told that Bowes - who has previous convictions for counterfeiting and road traffic matters -was apprehended in Spain in April 2022 and has been held in custody since.

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