Scottish ‘Tony Soprano’ smuggled cocaine in banana boxes

A notorious gang leader has admitted masterminding a plot to smuggle almost a tonne of cocaine from South America to Scotland hidden in a shipment of bananas.

Jamie Stevenson, better known as ‘Iceman’, has pleaded guilty to directing the importation of the drug seized by Border Force teams in Dover in September 2020.

The seizure, called Operation Pepperoni, involved the National Crime Agency and Police Scotland. At the time, the NCA estimated the cocaine was worth £100m.

The 119 packages of cocaine were hidden in boxes of bananas from Ecuador, addressed to a fruit merchant in Glasgow.

The operation took place in the United Kingdom, Spain, Ecuador and Abu Dhabi.

Stevenson, from Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, was a leading figure in the highest echelons of organised crime in Scotland.

He was once described as the Scottish answer to Tony Soprano, the mafia boss from the television series The Sopranos.

The 59-year-old was accused of murdering his witness and criminal accomplice Tony McGovern outside a Glasgow pub in 2001, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

Six years later, after being the target of a groundbreaking undercover police investigation, Stevenson admitted laundering more than £1 million in dirty money.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but in 2014 he was back on the streets.

The prison sentence did not end Stevenson’s criminal career.

In the summer of 2020, he was wanted again after police seized 28 million Etizolam ‘street Valium’ tablets from a pill factory in Kent.

Etizolam has been linked to hundreds of drug deaths in Scotland.

Stevenson was arrested but released on bail, allowing him to flee the country. The Dover cocaine bust followed in September.

In 2022, the National Crime Agency named Stevenson on a list of 12 Wanted Men in the UK and within weeks he was in jail again.

A joint operation between the NCA, Scottish Police and the Dutch National Police led to his arrest while jogging in Bergen op Zoom after a period of supervision.

Stevenson was extradited to the UK and this month appeared in the High Court in Glasgow along with six other men.

The evidence began on Monday, with Stevenson denying a total of 14 charges. However, the 59-year-old has now admitted his involvement in the smuggling of cocaine and the production and supply of Etizolam.

The jury heard it took officers three days to find cocaine hidden in banana boxes shipped from Ecuador.

Police said homes in Scotland and England were searched following the seizure of the drugs and officers identified the men involved.

Fruit trader David Bilsland, 68, and Paul Bowes, 53, have pleaded guilty to serious organised crime and drugs offences.

Gerard Carbin, 45, Ryan McPhee, 34, and Lloyd Cross, 32, pleaded guilty earlier in the trial.

And Lewis Connor, 27, was jailed for three years in July after the investigation found encrypted phone calls proving he had set fires across central Scotland.

The investigation was closely linked to Operation Venetic, which saw hundreds of arrests made after the infiltration of an encrypted communications platform used by criminals.

Gerry Mclean, the NCA’s regional head of investigations, said: “Following his arrest in 2020, career criminal Stevenson fled the country but continued to direct the importation of cocaine from abroad into the UK, under the false impression he could evade justice.

“His plea today, and the earlier guilty pleas of five of his accomplices, are testament to the dedicated work of NCA officers, our partners at Police Scotland and our many law enforcement colleagues around the world.

“Together, we work tirelessly to dismantle organised crime groups supplying Class A drugs and ensure that all those involved, wherever they may be hiding, are brought to justice.”