Moment plot to smuggle £11m worth of cocaine hidden in bananas smashed by National Crime Agency

The gang ringleader behind a drug smuggling operation is facing jail - despite initially denying all involvement while letting other men do his “dirty work”.

Four men were previously jailed for a total of 62 years after being caught red-handed smuggling 139 kilos of class A drugs in a banana shipment. But Sajid Ali, 56, had distanced himself from the operation instructing his criminal associates via WhatsApp voice and text messages instead.

Watch on Shots!: Our episode of Caught On Camera when the £11m banana cocaine smugglers were originally caught

Cocaine hidden with bananas

Ali was arrested at Heathrow Airport in January this year just minutes before boarding a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, where he was living at the time. He orchestrated a plan to smuggle 139 kilos of cocaine hidden inside a refrigerated consignment of bananas which arrived at London Gateway port from Ecuador. However Border Force officers intercepted the delivery in April 2022 and discovered the drugs concealed in a hidden roof compartment.

Dramatic CCTV shows NCA and police officers moving in to arrest the gang, as they unloaded the consignment. Kaviani and Ibra attempted to flee but were apprehended at the storage yard. All four men - Robert Ball, 60, Florjan Ibra, 30, Mirgent Shahu, 33, and Arman Kaviani, 37 - were later charged with cocaine importation offences and jailed at Warwick Crown Court in November last year.

Gang boss due for sentencing

Ali, of Hall Green, Birmingham, was convicted of conspiracy to import a Class A drug by a jury at Coventry Crown court on Tuesday this week following a three-week trial. He is due to be sentenced on October 16.

NCA operations manager Paul Orchard said afterwards: “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.”

Caroline Hughes, specialist prosecutor in the CPS, said: “This was a major operation, which saw a vast quantity of drugs seized before they could reach the community's streets. Throughout the investigation, Sajid Ali refused to admit his involvement in this large-scale drug operation, however the evidence carefully pieced together by the NCA and the CPS demonstrated the leading role he played in this importation. The CPS is committed to working with investigators such as the National Crime Agency to ensure that criminal drugs gangs are brought to justice.”