Sajid Ali, 56, of Birmingham, directed his subordinates to pick up £11 million (US$14.1 million) worth of illegal narcotics inside of a banana-filled storage unit. Police, however, became aware of Ali’s cocaine-laden consignment before it could be retrieved and set a trap for his crew.
The container originally arrived in London from Ecuador in early 2022. Unbeknownst to the group, border officers inspected their cargo and found 139 kilograms of cocaine attached to the ceiling.
Authorities then resealed the container and set up surveillance for whoever would come to claim it.
A few days later, one of Ali’s lieutenants, Robert Ball, 60, contacted the shipping firm to release the container and arranged for its transport to an off-site storage company. Although by doing so, he had unknowingly put NCA surveillance officers on his tail.
On Apr. 15, 2022, Ali, Ball, and another lieutenant Mirgent Shahu, 33, met at a café in Birmingham to go over the final arrangements to retrieve the drugs.
Investigators noted how Ali “deliberately distanced himself from the operation” by relaying instructions via WhatsApp to Shahu and Ball rather than go anywhere near the cocaine himself.
Ball and Shahu then traveled to the site with two other accomplices, whom they instructed to access the container by mounting a forklift truck.
Upon accessing the contents within, NCA and police swarmed in to arrest them. All four were convicted and are now serving a collective 62 years in prison.
Police said that Ball was working on behalf of an Albanian organized crime syndicate. An NCA Senior Press Officer later told OCCRP that Shahu was also assessed as “a significant Albanian OCG member who had been in the UK for approximately 10 years.”
Ali himself evaded capture until January 2024. He was minutes from boarding a flight home to Istanbul from London’s Heathrow Airport before NCA agents apprehended him.
“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,” said NCA Operations Manager Paul Orchard.
“Had this load not been intercepted and seized, it would have been worth millions of pounds on the streets of the U.K.,” he added.
Ali is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16, 2024.