An international drug trafficker who was once one of the UK’s most wanted men has today been jailed for 20 years.
James Stevenson custody imageJames ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 59, masterminded a plot to smuggle nearly a tonne of cocaine from Ecuador to Glasgow Fruit Market Ltd in the city’s Kennedy Street.
The huge consignment had a street value of £76m and was hidden in boxes of bananas. It was seized at the Port of Dover in September 2020. Such was the volume of the cocaine, it took officers three days to search and pinpoint all 119 packages of the Class A drug.
Stevenson was also central to a conspiracy to produce and supply approximately 28 million Etizolam “street valium” tablets, which were seized following a raid on a pill factory in Kent.
Stevenson, known as ‘Iceman’, denied the offences until his long-awaited trial in August had begun.
Three days after the trial started he admitted two charges: directing Serious Organised Crime for the offence of importing cocaine, and being involved in Serious Organised Crime through the supply of Etizolam, a Class C drug.
He remained impassive as he was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.
Stevenson and his organised crime group (OCG) were brought down by investigators from the National Crime Agency, Police Scotland the Metropolitan Police under Operation Venetic – the UK, NCA-led response to the takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat in 2020.
In June 2020, officers from the Organised Crime Partnership London – made up of NCA and Met Police officers – raided a pill factory in Kent and seized the 28 million Etizolam tablets. At the same time, NCA and Police Scotland officers – in the Organised Crime Partnership Scotland – arrested Stevenson within the grounds of a hotel on the south side of Glasgow.
Stevenson was released on bail and around six weeks later went on the run.
As part of the ongoing investigation, officers from the OCP Scotland worked with Border Force to identify a suspicious banana shipment due to arrive at Dover in September 2020.
Encrochat evidence showed that Stevenson discussed the plots with accomplices on EncroChat under his handles ‘elusiveale’ and ‘bigtasty’.
In January 2022, the NCA included Stevenson on a most wanted campaign and issued a public appeal for information on his whereabouts.
Just two weeks later following an operation by the NCA, Police Scotland and Dutch National Police, Stevenson was arrested while jogging in a street in the southern municipality of Bergen op Zoom and was extradited back to Scotland.
Today, other OCG members were also sentenced.
Gerard Carbin, 44, of Fishescoates, Gardens, Rutherglen, and Ryan McPhee, 34, of Eynot Street, both Glasgow, were jailed for seven years and four years respectively after admitting a count of being involved in Serious Organised Crime by being involved in the supply of Etizolam.
Paul Bowes, 53, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, admitted the same charge and was sentenced to six years.
The court heard that Glasgow Fruit Market Ltd owner David Bilsland, 68, told someone he had “done something stupid” and was “going to jail for a long time”. He was sentenced to six years after admitting to involvement in Serious Organised Crime by agreeing to import cocaine.
Bilsland, of Blair Atholl Crescent, Newton Mearns, Glasgow, was meant to provide the appearance of legitimacy to the coverload of bananas hiding the cocaine. He used the EncroChat handle ‘trendymutant, met Stevenson at a criminal meeting in Spain and he also liaised with Stevenson’s right-hand man Lloyd Cross, 32, who relayed his information to Stevenson.
Cross, of Menock Road, Glasgow, was known as ‘shaggygoat’ on EncroChat. He admitted being involved in Serious Organised Crime for the importation of cocaine on the first day of the trial and was sentenced to six years.
The National Crime Agency’s regional head of investigations Gerry Mclean said: “Jamie Stevenson and his OCG are now where they belong thanks to very long and tenacious investigations by officers from the NCA, Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police.
“Offenders who traffick and peddle drugs around the UK don’t care at all about the harm they bring to our communities, they don’t care about the lives that are destroyed by addiction.
“The NCA and our policing partners will continue to employ every possible tactic to target offenders who pose such a threat to the public.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Ferry, Police Scotland’s Head of Organised Crime, said:
“The sentencing of Stevenson, Bilsland, Bowes, Carbin, McPhee and Cross following their guilty pleas sends out a clear message that the activities of those who think that they can bring illegal drugs into our communities will not be tolerated.
“I want to acknowledge the hard work and diligence shown by the officers who investigated the group and provided the evidence in what was a complex investigation. It also and shows the value of working with our law enforcement partners, including the National Crime Agency and those abroad and underlines Police Scotland’s unwavering commitment to the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and its national strategy.
“This multi-agency operation, which spanned several countries, prevented a huge haul of illegal drugs reaching our communities and will have undoubtedly saved lives. However, we cannot be complacent, and our officers will continue their work to ensure Scotland remains a hostile environment for organised criminals.”
Deputy Crown Agent Kenny Donnelly, who leads the fight against serious organised crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “James Stevenson and his criminal associates were involved in drug trafficking on an industrial and global scale.
“But they have been brought to justice thanks to an extensive operation involving Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency, working with COPFS, to investigate and dismantle their network of drug supply.
“Our message is clear: we will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of drug traffickers. They will be caught, they will be prosecuted, and they will be brought to account for their crimes through the courts.”
So far, through the combined work of all UK law enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service, Operation Venetic has resulted in more than 3,200 arrests, 1,841 offenders convicted, more than 11,800 years of sentences, over £84m seized, 3,500 rounds of ammunition seized, 173 guns taken off the streets, drug seizures of six and a half tonnes of cocaine and more than three tonnes of heroin, with over 200 threats to life averted.