{"id":28365,"date":"2024-10-03T03:39:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T07:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28365"},"modified":"2024-10-03T03:39:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T07:39:16","slug":"the-gangster-brought-down-by-a-shipment-of-bananas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/03\/the-gangster-brought-down-by-a-shipment-of-bananas\/","title":{"rendered":"The gangster brought down by a shipment of bananas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the early summer of 2020, Jamie Stevenson was taking advantage of the lifting of lockdown restrictions to meet associates outside a four-star Glasgow hotel.<\/b><\/p>\n

They were sitting at a picnic table when they heard shouts and the screech of tyres.<\/p>\n

Men in plain clothes were moving rapidly towards them so Stevenson, a notorious crime boss who had reputedly been the target of numerous attempts on his life, took to his heels.<\/p>\n

He ran 100 yards before stumbling down a steep grass slope and falling on to a path, where his pursuers brought his flight to a halt.<\/p>\n

An investigator who witnessed the scene said Stevenson had thought he was going to be “taken out”.<\/p>\n

“Once we got hold of him, he was relieved it was the police,” the investigator said.<\/p>\n

Stevenson was taken to England and was no doubt relieved a second time when the authorities released him on bail.<\/p>\n

Within a month, the veteran criminal – nicknamed the Iceman – had fled abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dozens<\/picture><\/span>Nearly a tonne of cocaine was found hidden in 119 foil packages in a shipment of bananas (Image: Crown Office)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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He spent 18 months on the run until Britain’s version of the FBI, the National Crime Agency (NCA), tracked him down in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Dutch national police\u00a0grabbed Stevenson while he was out jogging<\/a>\u00a0with another Scottish fugitive, convicted killer Dean Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Stevenson had thought he was safe and was said to be shocked to find himself back in custody, this time with no chance of escape.<\/p>\n

Now he has been\u00a0jailed for 20 years\u00a0<\/a>for masterminding an international cocaine smuggling operation where the drugs were hidden in a shipment of bananas, and setting up a drugs factory in England.<\/p>\n

There are parts of this story which read like a darkly satirical crime thriller but Stevenson was very much the real deal – a top-level gangster who made a fortune from trafficking drugs linked to hundreds of deaths.<\/p>\n

The man dubbed a real-life Tony Soprano tried to flood Scotland with a tonne of cocaine estimated to be worth \u00a3100m and millions of deadly Etizolam tablets. This happened in 2020, the year the country suffered its worst ever drugs death toll.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Etizolam, better known as street valium, had been implicated in 756 deaths, half that year’s total. By the end of 2020, it had been linked to 814.<\/p>\n

Police are convinced that had Stevenson succeeded, many more people would have lost their lives while he raked in millions of pounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Someone<\/picture><\/span>The drugs were hidden inside boxes of bananas (Image: Crown Office)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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(Image: Crown Office)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Det Ch Supt Dave Ferry of Police Scotland said: “Serious and organised crime ruins lives, kills people and leaves families devastated.<\/p>\n

“Has this operation saved lives in Scotland? I think you can definitely say that.”<\/p>\n

Stevenson, 59, and his gang were brought down by four years of intensive police work, international co-operation between law enforcement agencies, the infiltration of an encrypted messaging service and an overwhelming body of evidence presented by Crown Office prosecutors in court.<\/p>\n

The public first heard Stevenson’s name after he was accused of shooting his criminal associate Tony McGovern outside a Glasgow pub in September 2000.<\/p>\n

Stevenson and McGovern had once been so close they were the best man at each other’s weddings. The murder charge was later dropped because of a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency launched Operation Folklore, a three-year investigation which targeted Stevenson with unprecedented electronic surveillance and forensic financial analysis.<\/p>\n

Boxed into a legal corner, Stevenson pleaded guilty to laundering \u00a31m of drugs money and was\u00a0jailed for 12 years and nine months<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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