How police snared Scottish 'Tony Soprano' behind £200m cocaine plot

A notorious gangster dubbed Scotland's Tony Soprano was posing as a British tourist in Spain when he was unwittingly caught up in a police surveillance operation that led to his downfall.

Officers were watching the bar of Alicante's four-star Melia Hotel as part of Operation Pepperoni after tracking a dodgy Glaswegian fruit seller there following his 11th hour decision to fly to Spain on Valentine's Day 2020.

Spanish officers tipped off by their British counterparts sent surveillance images of the meeting back to Scotland.

But when photographs from the Alicante bar arrived in Scotland, investigators were stunned to see the man David Bilsland had been meeting was Jamie Stevenson, one of the UK's most wanted criminals and a murder suspect nicknamed the 'The Iceman'.

In a T-shirt and jeans the gangster, once the key suspect in a murder case involving his own best man, was confident he passed off as just another British tourist - and completely unaware he was under surveillance.

The summit was the beginning of the end for Stevenson, who was jailed for 20 years yesterday after a five-year police operation involving bananas from South America sent to a Glasgow fruit market, a Kent drugs factory and an Amsterdam brothel.     

His demise was sealed at the fateful Valentine's Day meeting, where Stevenson held a conversation with Bilsland about using shipments of bananas as a cover for smuggling in a tonne of cocaine worth £100million. 

Until then detectives had had no idea where he was after he fled the country on police bail.

Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency had already formed an organised crime partnership to target top-tier criminals and Stevenson was high on their list. 

Suspicions heightened when it emerged Bilsland was booked to travel from Glasgow to Alicante for only a day and Operation Pepperoni officers asked counterparts in Spain to follow him

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Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Ferry, head of organised crime at Police Scotland, described it as a 'eureka moment' in the operation.

On June 12, 2020, police arrested Stevenson as he met with associates outside the grand Sherbrooke Castle Hotel in Pollokshields. 

He panicked when he saw plain clothes officers pour out of a car, assuming he was being targeted in a gangland hit.

Stevenson ran 100 yards before he tripped and tumbled down a grass slope. But he was relieved when he realised he was being arrested and not shot.

He had left behind his EncroChat device, an encrypted communications service used by criminals to exchange messages. 

In April 2020, French law enforcement had infiltrated the system and Stevenson's messages helped secure his conviction.

A raid on a pill factory linked to Stevenson in Kent led to the seizure of 28 million Etizolam 'street valium' tablets. This placed the case in an English jurisdiction, so Stevenson was taken south of the Border.

Incredibly, he was released on police bail – and fled abroad.

He was eventually rearrested in 2022 while out jogging in the historic Netherland's city of Bergen op Zoom.

Stevenson pleaded guilty mid-trial at the High Court in Glasgow in August 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.

Stevenson and five other men were jailed at the same court yesterday for a total of 49 years.

Prosecutors said his huge trafficking operation spanned the UK, Spain, Ecuador and the luxury Nurai Island Resort in Abu Dhabi.

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Stevenson was also central to a massive 'pill factory' which churned out millions of street valium tablets with a wholesale price of about £400,000

Etizolam was responsible for 752 deaths in Scotland in 2019 - more than half of drugs deaths in the country that year - making it a major contributor to its drug death epidemic. 

Already one of Scotland's most notorious gangland figures, he was charged in 2001 with the murder of Tony McGovern, the best man at his wedding, but the case was later dropped.

Stevenson was then jailed for more than 12 years in 2007 after laundering more than £1million of dirty money.

He was freed in 2014, but soon returned to crime at a worldwide level.

The gangster and five of his associates are now behind bars after being snared as part of the joint Police Scotland and National Crime Agency (NCA) probe, Operation Pepperoni.

They were snared after officials smashed the encrypted EncroChat phone network revealing scores of messages relating to the smuggling plot.     

Sentencing him, Judge Lord Ericht said Stevenson had 'directed a complex operation for the importation and supply of cocaine' and 'played a leading role in manufacturing street valium', with 13.5 million pills seized by police.

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%, weighing almost a tonne and with a street value of £76 million.

Bilsland, 68, 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.

Both were sentenced to six years.

Vehicle recovery firm owner Lloyd Cross, 32, pleaded guilty to involvement in the plot before the trial and was also given a six-year sentence.

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. Carbin was sentenced to seven years, while McPhee was given a four-year prison sentence.

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Sentencing Stevenson, Lord Ericht said: 'Cash was provided by you to fund David Bilsland's apparently legitimate business, removing Mr Bilsland from director and replacing him with a vulnerable individual without their knowledge.

'Messages show you discussing 1kg blocks and discussing the appearance of legitimacy and the need to start sending dummy loads, and 18 consignments of bananas, of cocaine with purity not less than 73%.' 

He said Stevenson also played a 'leading role' in manufacturing etizolam, including at a manufacturing facility in Rochester.

Bilsland was told by the judge: 'You met Stevenson in Spain and organised a consignment with port authorities and others,' while he told Carbin he had 'significant involvement' in the etizolam scheme.

McPhee was told: 'You agreed to take 2.5 million of etizolam pills and transport them. You delivered one million tablets, and another delivery Mr Carbin discussed with you was five million. The delivery was not meant to be a one off.' 

Sentencing Bowes, the judge said: 'You had significant involvement in etizolam. You took delivery of 500,000 tablets'.

The judge described Cross's role in the cocaine operation as 'significant'.

During mitigation, Thomas Ross KC, defending Stevenson, said: 'He knew exactly what he was doing and appreciates Your Lordship must pass a sentence that deters others.'

The court heard Bilsland, a life-long fruit trader who ran his father's business and provided produce to hotels and celebrities, had planned to retire and had been seeking a buyer for his company within the community - but was contacted by a stranger and agreed to sell.

Defending Bilsland, Gary Allan KC said: 'He realised beyond any doubt he had been involved in criminal enterprise at a meeting in Alicante where he learnt his fruit business was being used for the importation of drugs.

'He accepts he ought to have withdrawn from the scheme. He regrets that he did not have the strength of character to do so.' 

Defending McPhee, Iain McSporran said the attraction for his defendant was 'easy money'.

Donald Findlay KC, for Carbin, said: 'Having met Mr Carbin I hope I can say he is a man who realises enough is enough.'

Defending Bowes, Bob Mitchell said: 'He is particularly ashamed of the effect of all this on his family.'

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John Scullion, defending Cross, said: 'He has accepted full responsibility, his motivation was financial.'

Law enforcement agencies welcomed the jailing of Stevenson and his gang, saying the international operation to smash their drug trafficking plot had 'undoubtedly saved lives' in Britain.

Police Scotland described the gang as 'top-tier', while the NCA said their trial had been 'long-awaited'.

NCA's regional head of investigations Gerry Mclean said: 'Jamie Stevenson and his organised crime gang are now where they belong thanks to tenacious investigations by officers from the NCA, Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police.

'Offenders who peddle drugs don't care about the harm to our communities, they don't care about the lives destroyed by addiction.

'The NCA and our 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, pledged to create a 'hostile environment' for gangsters.

He 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 they can bring illegal drugs into our communities will not be tolerated.

'This multi-agency operation, which spanned several countries, prevented a huge haul of illegal drugs reaching our communities and will have undoubtedly saved lives.'

Deputy Crown agent Kenny Donnelly, from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said Stevenson and his criminal associates were involved in drug trafficking, of cocaine and other substances, on an 'industrial and global scale'.

He added: 'They have been brought to justice thanks to an extensive operation to investigate and dismantle their network of drug supply.

'We will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of drug traffickers. They will be prosecuted and brought to account through the courts.

'It was clear from the EncroChat messages that, as the ringleader, Stevenson directed the group. The cocaine they were planning to distribute would have undoubtedly contributed to misery in our communities.

'These convictions are testament to the forensic and meticulous work undertaken by specialist prosecutors to bring Stevenson and his five co-accused to justice and I would like to commend their efforts.'