JAMIE ‘Iceman’ Stevenson reached out to a “dead” mob boss in a last-gasp bid to dodge justice over a £100million cocaine plot, it’s been claimed.
Underworld sources told how the drugs kingpin sought help from James Gillespie, 51 — missing in Brazil with brother Barry, 47 — to incriminate lackeys as his defence crumbled.
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The twist came on the eve of Stevenson’s trial when underling Lloyd Cross broke ranks and owned up to his role in the gang’s scheme to smuggle the huge narcotics haul into the UK in boxes of bananas.
It sparked a re-think by Stevenson, 59, who tried to deflect blame on to Cross plus caged hood James ‘The Don’ White, 47, and convicted dealer Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Jamieson, 41.
And it was claimed Stevenson roped in lackeys of the Gillespie mob to ask White to play along with his tactics at the High Court in Glasgow.
An insider disclosed: “When the Iceman received confirmation that Cross was pleading guilty, he lodged his special defence of incrimination.
“It was a desperate, last-ditch attempt to dilute the serious charges he faced.
“A despicable attempt to shift blame on to a younger member of his organisation, with direct assistance from James Gillespie.”
It meant associates of the brothers visited White’s nick to get his co-operation to implicate Cross and let Stevenson get off.
The source claimed: “White was prepared to take the witness box and confirm he had sent shipments of cocaine directly to Cross and Jamieson.”
But the bid failed after Stevenson’s gang flipped one by one — and he later admitted shipping the drugs here from Ecuador.
He now faces being sentenced this Wednesday along with his stepson Gerry Carbin, 45, plus other gang members Cross, 32, Ryan McPhee, 34, David Bils-land, 67, and Paul Bowes, 53.
We told how cops in Brazil claimed to have no info to suggest the Gillespies are dead.
But Scots crime-fighters told relatives the pair may have come to harm after vanishing in 2019.
Lag died of same drugs
A CAGED hitman died after taking cocaine and street Valium — the same drugs smuggled here or produced by Jamie Stevenson.
Papers show the cause of death for Andrew ‘Dumbo’ Gallacher, 43, was “cocaine, etizolam and amitriptyline intoxication”.
He was part of a Lyons gang that conspired to murder rivals.
A fatal accident inquiry will probe his 2021 death at Addiewell nick, near Livingston.
