Stevenson gang exchanged messages on cocaine plot, court hears

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A “career criminal” and a fruit trader plotted to smuggle nearly a tonne of cocaine into the UK from Ecuador in consignments of bananas at a meeting in a Spanish hotel on Valentine’s Day shortly before lockdown, a court has heard.

James Stevenson, 59, pleaded guilty last week to a plot to import cocaine, and his stepson Gerard Carbin, 45, also admitted involvement in the production of Class C drug etizolam, known as street Valium – 17 years after they were both jailed in 2007 for involvement in organised crime.

Fruit trader David Bilsland, 67, admitted a charge of agreeing to import cocaine, and co-accused Paul Bowes, 53, and Ryan McPhee, 34, entered guilty pleas to production and supply of around 13,462,000 street Valium pills, midway through a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last week.

Vehicle recovery firm owner Lloyd Cross, 32, pleaded guilty to involvement in the plot before the trial began. All the men were remanded in custody.

Border Force officers at the Port of Dover seized 18 consignments of bananas addressed to Glasgow Fruit Market between May and September 2020 – containing 119 foil packages of cocaine with a purity of 73%, and a street value of £76 million, weighing almost a tonne, the court previously heard.

Giving a narrative of events on Monday, prosecutor Alex Prentice told the court that Stevenson and market trader Bilsland met at a hotel in Alicante, Spain, to discuss the plan, on February 14 2020 – with Spanish police carrying out surveillance.

Bilsland, a trader at Glasgow Fruit Market, colluded with Cross, who owned LM Recovery, to use their businesses to fund the importation of drugs, with recovery vehicles used to deliver and collect cash, the court heard.

French law enforcement officers infiltrated the secretive EncroChat network in April 2020, leading to the gang being brought to justice.

After Stevenson was arrested in June 2020 and later released, Carbin instructed that his stepfather’s account was deleted remotely, and his own messages were wiped, the court heard.

Two of the men were extradited from Spain, while Stevenson, previously described by the National Crime Agency as a “career criminal”, was extradited from the Netherlands after being arrested in February 2022.

Mr Prentice said: “The banana consignments, including that which contained cocaine, were arranged by David Bilsland on behalf of Glasgow Fruit Market Limited. Messages extracted from EncroChat data show Stevenson discussing with Cross the importation of kilo blocks of cocaine, and the use of Bilsland’s business experience to provide the appearance of legitimacy.”

An EncroChat device – which resembled an Android phone – was obtained for Bilsland, who was removed as a company director and replaced with a “vulnerable” person in England who provided their identity but had no involvement, the court heard.

Mr Prentice said: “The operation involved cash being provided by Stevenson, Cross and others, to fund Bilsland’s arrangement of apparently legitimate imports.”

Stevenson sent an EncroChat message on March 31 2020 saying he had “bought that wee guy’s company”, with a picture of the Glasgow Fruit Market website, the court heard.

The unidentified EncroChat user responded: “That’s life changing work.”

The court heard that messages suggested Cross and Stevenson met in a park to discuss plans in April 2020, while Bilsland arranged the banana consignments “on behalf of Glasgow Fruit Market Limited”.

On April 27 2020, Carbin and Stevenson broke the lockdown to travel to London, and stayed in a flat leased by Bowes for around a month to co-ordinate delivery of the street Valium pills, which totalled around 13,462,000, the court heard.

A message from Cross to Stevenson, sent on May 5 2020, read: “We can send one of our recovery trucks to meet your guy, if we leaves the doe in the van we will take it away for a pretend service then bring it back the next day if that’s suitable?”

Police carried out surveillance on May 26 2020 and observed a Glasgow Fruit Market van being collected and returned by LM Recovery, owned by Cross, before Bilsland entered the van and retrieved a box.

Cross wrote to Bilsland: “All sounds absolutely perfect mate. You are doing some top work.”

Bilsland responded: “Thanks. You too. We are all a team. Will give you update on Tuesday. Have a good weekend.”

Mr Prentice said: “The messages show that one of Mr Bilsland’s primary roles was to engage in email and telephone communications with the shipping lines, port authorities and others involved in the logistics of legitimate importation.”

A message from Stevenson suggested that McPhee would be paid £1,000 per one million street Valium pills, the court heard.

Stevenson wrote that he thought there was “35 mil to be made”, and would result in a “wage” of £105,000 for an unidentified EncroChat user – who was arrested in Rochester, Kent, on June 12 2020 when police and the National Crime Agency launched a raid of a pill factory in an industrial unit.

Equipment capable of producing 258,000 pills per hour was discovered, the court heard.

The case was adjourned for sentencing on October 2 at the same court.