Gangster who plotted getting cocaine into UK in banana boxes jailed

by · Mail Online

One of the UK's most wanted men who plotted to smuggle £76 million of cocaine into Britain from Ecuador in consignments of bananas has been jailed for 20 years.

James Stevenson, 59, known as The Iceman, pleaded guilty mid-trial at the High Court in Glasgow to two charges - directing a serious criminal offence of importation of cocaine, and being involved in organised crime through production and supply of etizolam, known as street valium.

He was jailed for 20 years when the case called at the court today.

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

Four other men who admitted their guilt mid-trial are also due to be sentenced.

James Stevenson, who plotted to flood Scotland with £76million worth of cocaine from Ecuador was sentenced to 20 years in jail
The cocaine was hidden in boxes of bananas bound for a fruit market in Glasgow

The court previously heard 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 per cent, weighing almost a tonne and with a street value of £76 million.

Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 67, entered a guilty plea to a charge of agreeing to import cocaine and co-accused Paul Bowes, 53, pleaded guilty to being involved in organised crime 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.

Border Force officers seized tens of millions of pounds worth of the Class A drug
Stevenson, known in underworld circles as 'The Iceman', was also involved in the production and supply of street valium

Stevenson's stepson, Gerard Carbin, 44, and co-accused Ryan McPhee, 34, admitted being involved in organised crime through the production and supply of etizolam.

The plot was smashed by French law enforcement officers who infiltrated the encrypted EncroChat network in April 2020.

Vehicle recovery firm owner Lloyd Cross, 32, pleaded guilty to involvement in the plot before the trial, and is also due to be sentenced.

The court previously heard Stevenson and Bilsland, a trader at Glasgow Fruit Market, met at a hotel in Alicante, Spain, to discuss the plan on February 14, 2020.

Messages suggested Cross and Stevenson met in a park to discuss plans in April 2020, while Bilsland arranged banana consignments and colluded with Cross to use their businesses to fund the importation of drugs, with recovery vehicles used to deliver and collect cash, the court heard.

The court was also told delivery was being arranged of more than 13 million street valium pills and during a raid in Rochester in June 2020, equipment capable of producing 258,000 pills per hour was discovered.

Stevenson was arrested, released and later fled to the Netherlands, but he was captured there in 2022 and extradited.

Stevenson and Carbin were both jailed in 2007 for organised crime, and the National Crime Agency named the older man as one of the UK's most wanted men in 2022.