WIREDGOV

The ringleader of an organised crime group which attempted to smuggle 139 kilos of cocaine into the UK hidden in a consignment of bananas has been convicted.

Sajid Ali, 56, from Birmingham, was arrested by National Crime Agency officers at Heathrow Airport in January this year, minutes before boarding a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, where he was living at the time.

His criminal associates had previously been apprehended while unloading a shipping container they believed contained the £11m pounds-worth of drugs at a storage company in Coventry in April 2022, and are now serving a total of 62 years in prison.

Ali deliberately distanced himself from the operation, choosing instead to instruct the group via WhatsApp voice and text messages to his lieutenants Mirgent Shahu, 33, from Sutton Coldfield, and Robert Ball, 60, from Cheshire.

Ball sent images of the container in situ to Ali just before the packages were unloaded.

The container had arrived at London Gateway port from Ecuador a few days before. Here, unbeknownst to the gang, Border Force officers who were working with the NCA found the cocaine packages in the roof area, removed them and resealed the container.

A few days later, Ball, who was found to be acting on behalf of an Albanian organised crime group, contacted the shipping firm to ask them to release four containers, including the one he thought contained drugs.

He arranged for a transport company to collect and move the containers to the storage company in Herald Way, Coventry.

These movements were watched by NCA surveillance officers.

Ali, Ball and Shahu met at a Costa Coffee in Kings Heath, Birmingham, on the morning of 15 April 2022 to make the final arrangements.  Ball and Shahu then travelled to Coventry where they met with accomplices Florjan Ibra and Arman Kaviani.

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. Kaviani and Ibra attempted to flee but were apprehended. All four men were later charged with cocaine importation offences and jailed for a total of 62 years at Warwick Crown Court in November last year.

Ali was convicted by a jury at Coventry Crown court yesterday (30 July), following a three-week trial. He is due to be sentenced on 16 October.

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.

“Removing this consignment from circulation will have been a sizeable blow to this criminal network, preventing them from generating profits that would have been invested in further criminality. We are determined to dismantle major international crime groups like this one from top to bottom.”

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.”