Man led plot to smuggle £11m of cocaine in bananas

Sajid Ali denied involvement in the large-scale drug operation throughout his trial, said the National Crime Agency

The leader of a drug gang which attempted to smuggle cocaine worth £11 million in a consignment of bananas has been convicted.

Sajid Ali, from Birmingham, was arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers at Heathrow Airport in January - minutes before he could board a flight to Istanbul.

The 56-year-old denied involvement in the large-scale operation, where nearly 140kg (300lb) of cocaine was found hidden in a shipping container in April 2022.

Following a three-week trial, Ali was convicted by a jury at Coventry Crown court on Tuesday and will be sentenced on 16 October.

Other members of the gang were arrested while unloading the container at a storage firm in Coventry, not knowing border force officers had already removed the drugs and resealed the container, said the NCA.

The men, convicted and jailed for cocaine importation offences at Warwick Crown Court last year, are:

• Mirgent Shahu, 33, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

• Robert Ball, 60, from Hale Barns, Cheshire

• Florjan Ibra, 31, from Barking, London

• Arman Kaviani, 38, from Golders Green, London

Border Force officials found the cocaine concealed in the shipping container on its arrival at London Gateway port, prompting a sting by the National Crime Agency (NCA) .

Investigators removed the drugs and resealed the container, putting it under surveillance and waiting to see who would claim it.

A few days later Ball, who was working for Albanian drug dealers, asked the shipping line to release the container and had it moved to the storage site in Herald Way, Coventry.

The NCA said Ali "deliberately distanced" himself from the operation, choosing instead to instruct the group via WhatsApp voice and text messages.

Ball and Shahu instructed Ibra and Kaviani, who used a forklift truck to get on top of the container.

They tore open the roof using a crowbar and started unloading packages they believed contained the drugs, but as they did so NCA and police officers moved in to arrest them.

Florjan Ibra and Arman Kaviani tried to remove the consignment from the container with a crowbar

NCA Operations Manager Paul Orchard said: “There is no doubt that Sajid Ali pulled the strings for this group, employing Ball and Shahu to oversee the dirty work of extracting what he thought were packages of cocaine from the shipping container.

“Had this load not been intercepted and seized, it would have been worth millions of pounds on the streets of the UK.

“Ali was in this for profit, but this criminality also comes at a huge human cost.

“Cocaine fuels violence and exploitation, including gang culture and firearm and knife crime in the UK and around the world."

Caroline Hughes, Specialist Prosecutor in the CPS, said: "Throughout the investigation, Sajid Ali refused to admit his involvement, however the evidence carefully pieced together by the NCA and the CPS demonstrated the leading role he played in this importation."