The Home Secretary has hailed crime fighters who brought down Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson, by smashing his global drugs operation that saw £100million of cocaine smuggled into the country in boxes of bananas.
Yvette Cooper thanked Police Scotland and the international teamwork that snared Scotland’s top hood as she welcomed global police top brass to a major Interpol summit in Glasgow.
Stevenson, 59, from nearby Rutherglen, was jailed for 20-years for leading a cartel which flooded the country with the Class A drug in banana shipments from Ecuador addressed to Glasgow Fruit Market.
Ms Cooper said: “Just four weeks ago, one of Britain’s most wanted men was jailed for leading a major drug gang responsible for importing tonnes of cocaine into this city, fuelling addiction and gang violence across Scotland.
“Thanks to a joint operation between Police Scotland, Dutch counterparts and the UK National Crime Agency, he was arrested in the Netherlands and extradited back to Scotland and sentenced to 20-years in prison at Glasgow High Court.
“International cooperation, working with Interpol, is delivering results in real life. So to all those working with colleagues on similar operations in pursuit of our collective security I want to say a heartfelt thank you.”
Five gangsters linked to Stevenson were also sentenced over the serious organised crime. Vehicle recovery firm owner Lloyd Cross, 32, who plead guilty to his involvement in the plot before the trial, was sentenced to six years in prison.
Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 68, who pleaded guilty to a charge of agreeing to import cocaine on August 29, 2024, was also sentenced to six years.
Paul Bowes, 53, joined the list of convicted criminals, for his involvement linked to 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 in Rochester, Kent. He was also handed a six-year sentence.
Ryan McPhee, 34, received a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam on August 28, 2024. Lastly, Gerard Carbin, 45, was handed a seven-year sentence after also pleading guilty to the same charge as McPhee on August 28, 2024.
Border Force officers at the Port of Dover seized 18 consignments of bananas addressed to Glasgow Fruit Market between May and September 2020. They contained cocaine with a purity of 73%, weighing almost a tonne and with a street value of £76 million. The plot was smashed by French law enforcement officers who infiltrated the encrypted EncroChat network in April 2020.
Speaking at Interpol’s 92nd General Assembly at the Scottish Event Campus, Ms Cooper added: “Over the past century, the success of Interpol has been a testament to the critical importance of its mission, to the skill and professionalism of its members and to the spirit of innovation that has evolved through decades of political technological and social change.
“But most importantly of all Interpol’s success has been testament to that enduring believe that together we are stronger. Britain’s new government is committed to that principle – and from fraud, to drug trafficking, we believe there are so many crimes and criminal networks which can only be tackled effectively by strong international policing and cooperation.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.