Drug smugglers guilty over £200m cocaine haul stashed in bananas

A drug-smuggling gang is facing years behind bars after cocaine with a street value of £200 million was intercepted in a consignment of bananas – making it the UK’s largest haul of the drugs at the time.

Crime boss Petko Zhutev was in charge of taking delivery of the Colombian drugs at a London warehouse in February 2021 – unaware it had already been seized by border officials at Portsmouth.

Midway through a retrial at the Old Bailey trial, Zhutev, 39, of no fixed address, admitted importation of a class A drug having previously been cleared of possession of a revolver and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Bruno Kuci, 32, of no fixed address, and Gjergji Diko, 34, of west Beckton, who were arrested with Zhutev, had previously pleaded guilty to the charges.

Two more defendants, Erik Muci, 44, of Haynes Road, Hornchurch and Olsi Ebeja, 40, of Malta Street, Islington, were found guilty of importation at the conclusion of the retrial.

Muci was also convicted of supply of class A drugs but the jury could not decide verdicts on the same charge relating to Ebeja.

On Friday, Judge Rebecca Trower KC adjourned sentencing to November 11.

She lifted a reporting restriction on the verdicts after the prosecution announced it would not seek a retrial on the outstanding charge.

The court had heard how port officials uncovered four pallets containing 2,330 blocks of the class A drug weighing 2.3 tonnes amid a consignment of 41 pallets of bananas from Colombia.

Four days later, two covert officers posing as lorry drivers delivered the boxes to a warehouse in north London, having already switched the drugs for more bananas.

Jurors were told the cocaine had a street value of £186 million, rising to £200 million when mixed with other substances, at the time making it the largest inland seizure ever by UK officers.

Around two hours after the delivery on February 18 2021, officers entered the warehouse and arrested the first three defendants.

Jurors were told that numbered pallets in which the drugs were transported had been identified and moved to a first floor where the process of searching them had started.

A revolver containing six live cartridges was also recovered from a ceiling girder above the boxes.

Prosecutor Tyrone Silcott had told jurors: “There is no dispute between the parties that this vast amount of cocaine was intended for delivery to the unit, nor is there any doubt the firearm and ammunition was inside the unit.

“You will be asked to consider whether you are sure the defendant Mr Zhutev was concerned in the importation of the drugs, or, as the defence may argue, was or may have been just an innocent person going about his lawful work of importing food.”

The court was told the gun and ammunition had been hidden in the warehouse to protect the drugs operation and to be used “when the need arose”.

Khutev used the cover of his role as director of a food importation business to organise and set up the UK side of the criminal operation, jurors heard.

He was in charge when two lorries delivered the pallets of bananas, having secured the manpower to unpack, repackage and distribute the drugs hidden among the fruit, it was alleged.

The prosecutor said: “The Crown rely on the absurdity that lies within the suggestion that an organised criminal gang would hand drugs valued at a street value of £200 million into the possession of a man who had absolutely no idea it was due to arrive.”