13 years’ jail for ex-Kop star turned drug dealer
A LIVERPOOL youth “prodigy” who became a prolific drug dealer when injury cut short his football career is now behind bars.
Jamie Cassidy started playing at Anfield with future Reds legends Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher.
But Manchester Crown Court heard leg and knee injuries resulted in him being released by the club in 1999 aged 21 and led to him and his older brother Jonathan starting a drugs empire.
Racket
A judge heard the siblings led a multi-million-pound operation that shipped 356kg of cocaine from South America into Europe. The gang laundered their profits into property.
But their racket crumbled when French intelligence officials cracked the encrypted EncroChat communication system in 2020.
Yesterday Cassidy, 46, his brother Jonathan, 50, and business partner Nasar Ahmed, 51, all admitted conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Cassidy, of Crosby, Merseyside, was jailed for 13 years and three months; Jonathan Cassidy and Ahmed were both sentenced to 21 years and nine months.
While Cassidy was paid a wage for his “managerial/operational role” in the business, Jonathan Cassidy and Ahmed bought the cocaine for between £28,000 and £32,000 per kilo at a cost of around £10million. The street value is estimated to be around £28million.
Judge Nicholas Dean said the men would serve half their sentences before being released on licence.
He told Cassidy: “You are of positive good character and have demonstrated in prison that you are someone capable of being very positive in terms of your effects on others.
“Your redemptive behaviour in prison deserves recognition.”
Cassidy was a member of Liverpool’s FA Youth Cup-winning squad in 1996 alongside Owen and Carragher. In his autobiography, Sky Sports pundit and former defender Carragher said midfielder Cassidy would have been a “certain Liverpool regular” if his career had not been blighted by injury.