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The shipment was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020. Pic: Crown Office
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The banana boxes were addressed to a Glasgow fruit merchant. Pic: Crown Office
The agency’s director general at the time, Graeme Pearson, told the BBC that Stevenson “has for many decades now been a very senior figure in organised crime”, adding: “He ran his business in much in the same way as the Sopranos ran their business as shown on television.”
Following the discovery of a suspected etizolam pill factory in Kent in June 2020, Stevenson, of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, fled the country.
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Pills seized during Operation Pepperoni. Pic: Crown Office
The banana shipment full of cocaine was then seized three months later while he was on the run.
Police described him as a “dangerous individual” when he appeared in a list of the UK’s most wanted in 2022.
Within weeks of the appeal, he was arrested while out jogging in the Netherlands and was extradited back to Britain to face justice.
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The hidden cocaine blocks. Pic: Crown Office
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At the High Court in Glasgow in August, Stevenson pleaded guilty to the two charges mid-trial and returned for sentencing on Wednesday.
Co-defendant Paul Bowes, 53, admitted his participation in organised crime by being involved in the production and supply of Class C drug etizolam at a string of premises, including in Abu Dhabi, in London, and in Rochester, Kent.
Bowes was jailed for six years.
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Ryan McPhee and Lloyd Cross. Pic: Police Scotland
Fruit market trader David Bilsland, 68, Gerard Carbin, 45, Ryan McPhee, 34, and Lloyd Cross, 32, also admitted serious organised crime and drug offences.
Carbin was sentenced to seven years in prison, both Bilsland and Cross received six years, and McPhee was jailed for four years.
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Lewis Connor. Pic: Police Scotland
Meanwhile, Lewis Connor, 27, was jailed for three years in July after the investigation found encrypted phone messages that proved he had set fire to properties and vehicles across central Scotland.
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Publish date : 2024-10-02 00:59:00
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