Gang jailed over £200m of cocaine in banana boxes
A gang has been jailed for trying to smuggle cocaine, which had a street value of around £200m, through a shipment of bananas from Colombia.
The shipment was intercepted at Portsmouth Port in February 2021 and is believed to be one of the largest drug seizures ever made in the UK.
Undercover police officers posed as truck drivers to transport the fake crates to a warehouse in north London.
Petko Zhutev, Ghergii Diko and Bruno Kuci pleaded guilty to smuggling, while Erik Muci and O Olsi Ebeja was found guilty of smuggling following an Old Bailey trial.
The bananas were imported by Agro Food Ltd, which had been trading fresh produce for five years before changing hands in December 2020 and appointing Zhutev as director.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the Bulgarian citizen came to the UK to find a legitimate company to buy from as a front for drug smuggling.
Police say he received the shipment at the company’s Edmonton warehouse and was unaware the cocaine had been removed and replaced with bananas and listening devices.
When armed police raided the unit, they found fake boxes placed to one side and some opened.
Police also found a loaded black Turkish Ozkusan revolver in the warehouse.
Jutef, Dicko and Couch were all arrested and later charged with importing class A drugs and possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Dicko and Couch pleaded guilty to the charges, but Juteff was cleared of firearms and ammunition charges after a 2023 trial.
A retrial was held this summer after a jury failed to reach a verdict on drug importation charges.
Kuci, described as a “trusted member of the operation”, was jailed for 21 years, while Diko, who also moved to the UK from Albania and worked as a mechanic, was jailed for 18 years.
Jutev changed his plea to guilty in September and has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Muci, described by the NCA as one of the key organizers of the scheme, was found guilty of smuggling and jailed for 26 years. He was further sentenced to seven consecutive years in prison for supplying Class A drugs.
Ebeja, who the NCA said was the intended watcher and driver, was found guilty of trafficking Class A drugs at the same trial, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of supplying the drugs. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Sentencing them earlier, Judge Rebecca Trowler KC said the import operation was “clearly the work of an organized crime group with an international component”.
The CPS said it would initiate proceedings to recover money obtained by crime.
