A senior crime officer has told a trial it took three days to search nearly a tonne of cocaine hidden in a banana box shipment from South America. Border Force officials searched a cargo of the fruit which had arrived at Dover from Ecuador and was addressed to a business in Glasgow. They discovered 119 foil packages containing 952 kilogrammes of cocaine with a purity level of 73%.
Six men are on trial at the High Court in Glasgow charged with a series of drugs offences. James Stevenson, 59, is accused of heading up the drug trafficking operation which spanned the UK, Spain, Ecuador and the luxury Nurai Island resort in Abu Dhabi. Prosecutors have listed 14 charges in a seven page indictment of accusations which span between January and September 2020.
They include claims Stevenson allegedly ordered Lloyd Cross, David Bilsland, and unnamed others to commit “a serious offence” by importing and supplying cocaine. Michael Miller, a senior officer at the National Crime Agency, told jurors that the cocaine had been brought to the UK from mainland Europe in HGVs or boats from South America. The banana shipment was addressed to “Glasgow Fruit Market” in the city’s Townhead.
Criminal money is said to have funded the set-up, including purchasing equipment, leasing premises, buying cars and registering company directors under fake names. Mr Miller and a team of Scottish officers analysed the boxes at a Home Office location in the south of England over three days. Jurors were s.