Scotland's 'Tony Soprano' smuggled cocaine in banana boxes

A notorious gangland criminal has admitted masterminding a plot to smuggle nearly a tonne of cocaine from South America to Scotland hidden in a cargo of bananas.

Known as 'Iceman', Jamie Stevenson has pled guilty to directing the importation of the drug which was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020.

The seizure, named Operation Pepperoni, involved the National Crime Agency and Police Scotland. At the time the NCA estimated the cocaine’s value at £100m.

The packages of cocaine were concealed in boxes of bananas from Ecuador, addressed to a fruit merchants in Glasgow.

The operation spanned the UK, Spain, Ecuador and Abu Dhabi.

Stevenson, of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, was a leading figure operating at the top level of organised crime in Scotland.

He was once described as Scotland’s answer to Tony Soprano, the mafia boss portrayed in television series The Sopranos.

The 59-year-old was charged with murdering his best man and criminal associate Tony McGovern outside a Glasgow pub in 2001 - but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Six years later, after being targeted by a ground-breaking undercover police inquiry, Stevenson admitted laundering more than £1m of dirty money.

He was jailed for 12 years but was back on the streets by 2014.

The prison term did not curtail Stevenson’s criminal career.

By summer 2020, he was once again a wanted man after police seized 28 million Etizolam “street Valium” tablets at a pill factory in Kent.

Etizolam has been implicated in hundreds of drug deaths in Scotland.

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

In 2022, the National Crime Agency named Stevenson in a list of the UK’s 12 wanted men and within weeks he was back in custody.

A joint operation by the NCA, Police Scotland and Dutch National Police led to his arrest while out jogging in Bergen op Zoom after a period of surveillance.

Stevenson was extradited back to the UK and went on trial this month at the high court in Glasgow along with six other men.

Evidence began on Monday with Stevenson denying a total of 14 charges, but the 59 year old has now admitted his role in smuggling cocaine and producing and supplying Etizolam.

Jurors heard it took officers three days to recover cocaine hidden in banana boxes that were sent from Ecuador.

On Wednesday, two other men Gerard Carbin, 45, and Ryan McPhee, 34, pled guilty to being involved in serious organised crime and the production and supply of a class C drug, etizolam.

Fruit merchant David Bisland, 67, Garry McIntyre, 43, and 53-year-old Paul Bowes remain in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow.

Prosecutors listed 14 charges in a seven page indictment of accusations which span from January to September 2020.