Former cocaine smuggler Stephen Mee tells of moment he faced Colombian drug lords

A former cocaine smuggler has told of the moment he was grilled by international drug lords over a missing cocaine delivery.

A former cocaine smuggler has recalled the terrifying moment he came face-to-face with Colombian drug lords who he thought were going to kill him.

British man Stephen Mee was working with the notorious and influential organised crime group Cali Cartel that had taken over Colombia’s cocaine industry when 3000 kilograms of the white stuff went missing.

It was 1996 and the Cartel was responsible for 90 per cent of the cocaine flooding into Europe – and the “directors” wanted to know where their cocaine was.

“We’ve walked in, there’s about six top Columbians. I’ve got my translator there … The first thing they wanted to know was what happened to the cocaine,” Mee said of the meeting that took pace in a “boardroom” at the top of a Bogota mall.

Former UK drug smuggler Stephen Mee has now become an artist. Picture: Facebook

He details the dramatic scene and his life of crime that led to it featuring in a bonus episode of True Crime Australia’s Cocaine Inc podcast.

“They’re saying, well, how did it get nicked? So, I’ve told them everything … you can check the papers and you can check who I am,” he told them.

While he was speaking “you’ve got these people walking in and out, coming back, whispering in their ears”.

The Colombian Armed Forces seized in southern Colombia about 10 tons of cocaine. Picture: Getty

He had a translator with him who was getting nervous.

“This Colombian’s telling me and he’s nudging me, you know ‘cause he’s panicking as well now because this could be just a meeting or it could be an assassination meeting for [cocaine]. [They] sat there all suited up and everything.”

“These are all immaculately dressed [men] with top suits on, you know, [just like] you’ve seen the films. That’s what they look like,” he said.

Patrol officer Jorge Vega with 800kg of cocaine - worth $300,000 per kilo - at a secure location in Cartagena, Colombia. Picture: Jason Edwards

It was a confrontation he was unprepared for – but he was the first person to front up to them after the loss of the 3000 kgs of cocaine because “everyone was still either nicked or in prison,” he said.

“I didn’t think I was going there to explain anything. I thought I was going there to create a deal.”

Mee said it was a “scary moment” for the first 20 minutes of the meeting when he didn’t know if he would live or die until they realised he wasn’t to blame for the missing cocaine.

Mee came into cocaine when he was younger in northeast Manchester. Picture: Facebook

Members of the Carlos Patino front of the dissident FARC guerrilla patrol next to coca crops in Micay Canyon in Colombia. Picture: AFP

Mee was involved in crime from a young age – as a boy it was pretty minor stuff where he grew up in Newton Heath, an area of northeast Manchester.

By the 1980s he moved to the Netherlands and got into the cannabis trade but soon moved to smuggling cocaine.

It was in the 90s he teamed up with the infamous drug lord Curtis Warren, who was known as the ‘cocky watchman’, ‘the Teflon gangster’ and Britain’s Pablo Escobar.

Between them they ran one of Europe’s biggest drug trafficking operations – until Mee was finally caught and he was locked up for 16 and a half years.

Since he left jail he has rebuilt his life and is no longer involved in crime, and works now as a professional artist.

He’s won awards, had sole exhibitions and is hoping to release a book of his work.

Originally published as Former cocaine smuggler Stephen Mee tells of moment he faced Colombian drug lords