Top cops have hailed the “Eureka moment” that ultimately sealed the fate of crime kingpin Jamie Stevenson.
This photo shows Stevenson at ease in a meeting at the Melia Hotel in Alicante, Spain, in February 2020.
The crime lord, 59, was oblivious to the reality that the innocuous snap would be the first piece of the jigsaw that would obliterate his £100 million drug smuggling operation.
Intelligence reports suggested that respectable appearing Glaswegian fruit trader David Bilsland had been corrupted by gangsters and was potentially planning something big.
That had sparked the birth of Operation Pepperoni in December 2019 – which turned out to be one of the most important organised crime investigations in the history of Police Scotland.
Detectives in Scotland tracked Bilsland’s movements to Alicante on Valentine’s Day, 2020, before asking Spanish counterparts to case the popular hotel, favoured by British tourists.
And they were stunned when the man popping up in the photo with the bent fruit merchant was none other than Jamie Stevenson.
A few months later it emerged that French cops had cracked the encrytpted EncroChat system, used by major crooks to run their secret operations.
And after many months of intense analysis the evidence from the EncroChat made a case against Stevenson and his cronies that would be impossible to defeat in court.
Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Ferry, head of organised crime at Police Scotland, said the revelation of Stevenson at the meeting with Bilsland was a game changing moment.
He said: “He had to be meeting someone of some significance. We knew that.
“Bilsland had booked a strange trip, which was very short and involved no luggage.
“And we were aware of deals he was setting up involving bananas from Ecuador, which our sources told us didn’t make any business sense. So w knew something untoward was happening.
“But it’s fair to say we didn’t expect it to be Jamie Stevenson, so it was a bit of a game-changer for us, you could perhaps say a Eureka moment.”
Business analysis suggested Bilsland was losing money on each “clean” consignment of bananas to come in from Ecuador – all being sacrificed to create the pretence of genuine business deals.
The gang swallowed £175,000 in losses – with most bananas in the 35 containers over 18 deliveries being dumped.
On September 21 2020, UK Border Force officials intercepted crates of bananas from Ecuador, addressed to a company, Glasgow Fruit Market, which contained a total of 952 blocks of cocaine each weighing one kilo – just less than a tonne.
The evidence defined Stevenson as the operation’s Mr Big – meaning he would inevitably be hammered with the biggest sentence.
Ferry said that the jailing of Stevenson will create a gap in the market for other, future Mr Bigs – but Stevenson’s scale will be hard to match.
He said: “There’s always going to be somebody to fill that demand and that’s always a concern.
“But the big players like Jamie Stevenson don’t come along that often. He was operating absolutely at the top end of Scottish, UK and international criminality.
“He was on the ‘most wanted’ list and he was dealing in cocaine or tablets, on a massive industrial scale.
“So actually disrupting that crime gang has been amazing.”
Jamie Stevenson and five gang members all admitted drugs charges at the High Court in Glasgow.
Stevenson, 59, pleaded guilty on Day 5 of the trial to directing a trafficking operation spanning the UK, Spain, Ecuador and a resort in Abu Dhabi.
He admitted two charges – of directing a serious criminal offence of importation of cocaine, and of being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam, often known as street Valium.
His not guilty pleas to the remaining charges were accepted by the Crown.
Stevenson admitted two charges – of directing a serious criminal offence of importation of cocaine, and of being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam, often known as street Valium.
Co-accused Paul Bowes, 53, pleaded guilty to a charge of being involved in organised crime by being involved in the production and supply of Class C drug etizolam at a string of premises including the Nurai Island Resort in Abu Dhabi, in London and Rochester, Kent.
Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 67, entered a guilty plea to a charge of agreeing to import cocaine.
Stevenson’s son-in-law Gerard Carbin, 44, and Ryan McPhee, 34, admitted being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam.
Lloyd Cross, 32, entered a guilty plea on the first day of the trial, admitting involvement in the cocaine shipment.
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