Scotland’s ‘Tony Soprano’ smuggled cocaine in banana boxes

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Scotland’s ‘Tony Soprano’ smuggled ******** in banana boxes

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Jamie Stevenson has pled guilty to directing the drugs smuggling operation

A notorious gangland ********* has admitted masterminding a plot to smuggle nearly a tonne of ******** 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 ***** which was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020.

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

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

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

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

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

The 59-year-old was charged with murdering his best man and ********* 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 ****** money.

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

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The trial heard how drugs were discovered in a banana box shipment at Dover

The prison term did not curtail Stevenson’s ********* 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 ***** deaths in Scotland.

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

In 2022, the National ****** Agency named Stevenson in a list of the

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and within weeks he was back in custody.

A ****** operation by the NCA, Police Scotland and Dutch National Police led to his

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after a ******* of surveillance.

Stevenson was extradited back to the *** 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 ******** and producing and supplying Etizolam.

Jurors heard it took officers three days to recover ******** 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 ****** and the production and supply of a class C *****, 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.

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