Gang who smuggled £200 million of cocaine in bananas sentenced to 116 years in jail
The police drug seizure is one of the biggest ever seen in the UK
A gang who tried to smuggle cocaine with a street value of around £200 million in bananas have been sentenced to a combined 116 years in jail.
Petko Zhutev, Ghergii Diko and Bruni Kuci pleaded guilty to smuggling in the shipment, whilst Erik Muci and Olsi Ebeja were found guilty following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Importer Argo Food Ltd was a food importer trading fruit grown in other countries. Zhutev had taken over as the director of the food company in December 2020.
The company was previously a legitimate business, but it had been acquired solely to use as a front for drug smuggling.
Police said the gang taking over a reputable food company added an extra layer of protection from raising suspicions.
In February 2021, a delivery of bananas was expected to be delivered to the company's warehouse in North London.
41 pallets of bananas were then shipped in from Columbia to Portsmouth, and were expected to be delivered by lorries to London.
Unknown to the gang, the shipment of cocaine hidden in the pallets had already been intercepted by the UK's Border Force and officers from the National Crime Agency on its arrival into Portsmouth.
Inside the intercepted containers were more than 2300 blocks of cocaine, each valued at £30,000 per block.
The crates containing the cocaine were swapped with crates containing real bananas.
Two officers then acted as lorry drivers and took the shipment to the warehouse in Edmonton, North London.
Once at the warehouse, Zhutev met the officers, helped them park and inspected the containers before signing for them.
Then, whilst he, Kuci and Diko were inside, a door to the industrial unit was smashed down by specialist counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police.
All three men were then arrested and charged with importing Class A drugs, as well as possessing a firearm and ammunition with the intent to endanger life.
Kuci and Diko pleaded guilty to all charges, whilst Zhutev pleaded not guilty.
Zhutev was initially found not guilty of the fire arms charges at the Old Bailey, but a jury struggled to come to a verdict for the drug smuggling charge, and a retrial was called.
He then changed his plea for the drug smuggling charges to guilty in September.
On the 11th of October, Erik Muci and Olsi Ebeja were found guilty by a jury of smuggling the Class A drugs into the country.
Muci was also found guilty of the charge of supplying the drug, whilst Ebeja was found not guilty.
The NCA said Muci was one of the principle organisers of the scheme, and said Ebeja acted as the lookout and driver for the drugs.
In a statement, John Coles, Head of Specialist Operations at the NCA, said:
"We work with partners at home and overseas to target organised criminals at the top of the chain and who pose the greatest risk to the UK, and the NCA is committed to disrupting their activities.
"These men attempted to bring a huge amount of cocaine into the country - one of the largest hauls of its kind on UK soil – which was destined for crime groups across London and the wider UK, and the seizure stemmed from a thorough investigation by NCA and Met Police officers."
Crime boss Petko Zhutev, 39, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Ghergii Diko, 34, of west Beckton, has been handed an 18-year jail sentence.
Bruno Kuci, 32, who was described as a "trusted member of the operation" has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Erik Muci, 45, of Hayes Road, Hornchurch, received the long prison sentence, of 33 years.
This includes 26 years for the importation, and an additional seven years after police recovered 33kg of cocaine from a property on Caledonian Road, North London.
Olsi Ebeja, 40, of Malta Street, Islington, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Sentencing the group, Judge Rebecca Trowler KC said the importation of the drugs was "plainly the work of an organised crime group with international elements."
Ms Trowler added "the extremely large quantities of cocaine involved and the organisation required to bring such amounts into the UK from Colombia demonstrated beyond doubt that this enterprise was sophisticated in its planning and well resourced."