Smugglers who hid £11m of cocaine in bananas shipment jailed

A gang who smuggled £11m of cocaine into the UK hidden in a shipment of bananas have been jailed.

They were caught after 22 stone (139kg) of drugs were seized after being found in the roof of a shipping container at London Gateway Port in April last year.

Investigators had resealed the shipment from Ecuador and waited for the smugglers to try claim it.

Robert Ball, 59, of Greater Manchester, and Mirgent Shahu, 32, of West Midlands, were jailed for 18 years.

Their two accomplices, Florjan Ibra, 30, from Barking in east London, and Arman Kaviani, 37, from Golders Green, north west London, were jailed for 13 and a half years and 12 years and nine months at a previous hearing.

Border Force officials found the cocaine concealed in the shipping container 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 Coventry.

There he got Ibra and Kaviani to climb on to the container using a forklift truck and rip open the top with crowbars, expecting to find the drugs.

Instead all four men were arrested.

Ringleaders, Ball, of Hale Barns, and Shahu, of Sutton Coldfield, were jailed earlier at Warwick Crown Court after being convicted by a jury in May.

David Phillips, of the NCA, said: "Ball and Shahu oversaw the nuts and bolts of this conspiracy on behalf of the organised crime group behind it.

"This group enlisted the assistance of Ibra and Kaviani, who they hoped would retrieve the drugs and make their efforts worthwhile.

"Unfortunately for these men, NCA officers were watching their every move before moving in to arrest them."

He said cocaine "fuelled violence and exploitation", including gang culture and firearm and knife crime, calling the seizure a "sizeable blow" to this criminal network.

All four men were charged with one count of conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug, while Kaviani was also charged with possession with intent to supply after crystal meth worth £500,000 was found at his home.

Specialist Prosecutor Caroline Hughes said confiscation proceedings would be pursued against Ball "to recover the money he made from his criminality".