A drugs kingpin is facing jail after being convicted over a plot to smuggle £11 million worth of cocaine into the UK hidden inside containers of bananas.

Sajid Ali, 56, 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.

National Crime Agency (NCA) officers then swooped on a storage yard in Coventry and arrested the gang as they unloaded the consignment. 

Robert Ball, 60, Florjan Ibra, 30, Mirgent Shahu, 33, and Arman Kaviani, 37, were previously jailed for a total of 62 years after being caught red-handed at the scene.

Florjan Ibra, 30, from Barking, east London was jailed for 13 and a half years (credit: NCA).

But a court heard gang ringleader Ali had distanced himself from the operation instructing his criminal associates via WhatsApp voice and text messages instead, Investigators found Ali had "pulled the strings" of the operation and directed his two lieutenants Shahu and Ball, a haulage company boss.

Ball, acting on behalf of an Albanian organised crime group, used the cover of his business and his connections within the industry to locate the container after it arrived in the UK.

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

Ali, Ball and Shahu met at a Costa Coffee in Kings Heath, Birmingham, on the morning of April 15, 2022 to make the final arrangements for the delivery.  

Arman Kaviani, 37, from Golders Green, north west London was jailed for 12 years and nine months (credit: NCA).

Ball and Shahu then travelled to Coventry where they met with accomplices Florjan Ibra and Arman Kaviani.

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

They tore open the roof using a crowbar and started unloading packages they believed contained the drugs.

Dramatic CCTV shows NCA and police officers moving in to arrest them. Kaviani and Ibra attempted to flee but were apprehended at the storage yard.

All four men were later charged with cocaine importation offences and jailed at Warwick Crown Court in November last year.

Mirgent Shahu, 32, of West Midlands, was jailed for 18 years (credit: NCA).

Ali denied all involvement in conspiracy to import Class A drugs claiming he was simply trying to help Shahu with containers of cigarettes. 

But in his interview, he admitted to owning two burner phones to maintain contact with Ball and Shahu, which provided evidence to show the groups movements and communications.

Ali, of Hall Green, Birmingham, was convicted of conspiracy to import a Class A drug by a jury at Coventry Crown court yesterday (Tue) following a three-week trial. 

He is due to be sentenced on October 16.

Robert Ball, 59, of Greater Manchester was also jailed for 18 years (credit: NCA).

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.

"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."