Liverpool prodigy turned drugs boss jailed for 13 years
Footballer handled huge haul of cocaine
It was this bravado and these messages that landed them in jail DET CON MARC WALBY ON CASSIDYS’ WEB CHATS
A FORMER Liverpool football prodigy has been jailed for 13 years after running an international drugs operation with his gang boss brother.
Jamie Cassidy, 46, and brother Jonathan, 50, made millions smuggling hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the UK hidden in modified vehicles.
At 12, Jamie looked destined for great things. He was chosen for the FA School of Excellence over Steven Gerrard and played alongside pals Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen in Liverpool’s first-ever FA Youth Cup win.
At 15, he was the England Under-16s’ leading goalscorer and under the wing of thenthree Lions boss Glenn
‘EXEC’
Hoddle. But when leg injuries stalled his football career, he turned to crime.
The Cassidy brothers admitted shipping industrial amounts of cocaine to Liverpool via Amsterdam from various countries in South America.
Jamie’s role was to distribute the drugs across England and Scotland via a network of trusted couriers.
Jailing him for 13 years and nine months yesterday, Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the Recorder of Manchester, described Jamie as having a managerial role in the drugsmuggling operation.
Also jailed were his older brother Jonathan and Jonathan’s business partner Nasar Ahmed, 51, of Bury, Gtr Manchester, who Judge Dean said played more of an “executive” role, issuing orders to Jamie.
Both were sentenced to 21 years and nine months for overseeing the importation of drugs.
The court heard they dealt 356kg of cocaine, worth around €30million, with €12m in cash changing hands in the space of three months. The group were finally caught when French intelligence services broke the encryption on messaging service Encrochat, known as a criminals’ Whatsapp.
Jamie, of Knowsley, Merseyside, called himself Nuclear-dog on their chats.
Jonathan, of nearby Crosby, was known as Whisky-wasp.
Det Con Marc Walby, of GMP’S Serious Organised Crime Group, said after the sentencing at Manchester crown court:
“Thanks to the interception of Encrochat, we were able to see their conversations and activity play out in a way we’ve never been able to before.”
He added: “Jonathan Cassidy and his colleagues got far too comfortable with their encrypted phones and began bragging about their personal lives.
“Ironically, it was this bravado and these messages which have landed them in jail for a long time.”
Judge Dean said the operation was sophisticated but that Jonathan’s selfcomparison with Mexican drugs lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in one Encrochat message was a “stupid exaggeration” and “entirely fanciful”.