Jamie Cassidy, once a promising talent who shared the field with future Liverpool FC icons Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen during their time in the club’s academy, had been earmarked for a spot in the Reds’ senior team before a series of injuries derailed his career.
At just 12 years old, Jamie Cassidy was seen as a rising star, destined to grace the grandest stages of football alongside renowned teammates like Carragher and Owen. However, his dreams took a dark turn as injuries piled up, leading him down a path of criminal activity.
Now aged 46, Cassidy faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars after confessing to his involvement in a lucrative drug enterprise. The operation, masterminded by his older brother Jonathan Cassidy, 50, saw substantial amounts of cocaine trafficked from South America into Europe, with Liverpool as one of its key distribution hubs, as revealed in court.
The shipments, concealed within modified vehicles, were transported from Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia via Amsterdam before reaching Merseyside. Jamie’s responsibility was to oversee the distribution of the cocaine throughout England and Scotland using a network of reliable couriers.
According to Richard Wright, KC, who prosecuted the case, Jamie played a significant operational and managerial role in the cocaine trafficking enterprise orchestrated by his brother Jonathan and their business associate Nasar Ahmed, aged 51. This criminal involvement marks a drastic departure from Jamie’s earlier promising trajectory, having been accepted into the Liverpool FC academy at the tender age of 12, alongside Carragher and Owen.
In his 2008 autobiography, Carragher lamented that his close friend “would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn’t suffered so much with injuries.”
At the age of 15, Jamie excelled as the top goal scorer for the England Under-16s team and received mentorship from then Three Lions manager Glenn Hoddle.
He played a pivotal role in Liverpool’s victorious FA Youth Cup campaign in 1996, alongside Carragher, Owen, and David Thompson, triumphing over a West Ham team featuring Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand.
Cassidy was captured in photographs proudly raising the trophy at Anfield. However, his aspirations were thwarted by leg and knee injuries, leading to his release from Liverpool in 1999 at the age of 21. He briefly played for Cambridge United before transitioning to non-league football.
A source close to Jamie described him as “a nice lad who went down the wrong path.” In a six-week period between April and May 2020, shortly before their arrests, the Cassidy brothers orchestrated deals that brought drugs worth over £28 million into the UK.
The duo from Merseyside funneled their illicit gains through a property enterprise, using the proceeds to invest in real estate and acquire multiple properties in Liverpool, including a disused cinema. However, their drug trafficking network came crashing down when law enforcement in France dismantled the EncroChat encrypted communication system, uncovering the activities of thousands of criminals.
Prosecutors assert that they have only scratched the surface of the operation, believed to have been in operation for an extended period. According to Mr. Wright, the Cassidys utilized EncroChat devices, likened to a “WhatsApp for criminals,” with Jamie adopting the alias “Nuclear-Dog” and Jonathan going by “Whisky-Wasp.”
He told Manchester crown court: “The devices were used to arrange the purchase, importation, sale and distribution of multi-kilo quantities across the north of England. The linked conspiracy to transfer criminal property relates to the movement of close to £10m in cash in the space of three months.”
Collaborating with the Cassidy brothers was Ahmed, hailing from Bury, Greater Manchester, who served as an intermediary and financial intermediary, receiving a percentage from the substantial sums paid by the Cassidy’s clients. Jamie also assumed the role of a meticulous bookkeeper, meticulously documenting the quantities of cocaine procured and delivered, alongside the millions of pounds in cash transactions.
In exchanges discovered on Jonathan’s phone, he jestingly remarked about sharing a birthday with the infamous Mexican drug cartel leader El Chapo. After the Encrochat crackdown, Jonathan fled to Dubai, instructing his property business team to secure him a villa within a budget of £2.3 million. He regularly monitored news reports of apprehended criminals and even searched online for any information regarding Jamie’s arrest. Feeling falsely reassured, he returned to the UK in October 2020 and was apprehended at Manchester Airport.
Jamie was taken into custody a month later at his residence in Knowsley, where officers uncovered his encrypted phone, a black machete, and the police dossier outlining the operation that led to his arrest. Jamie has confessed to charges of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal proceeds.
Jonathan, residing in Crosby, and Ahmed pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to circumvent the prohibition on the importation of controlled substances. Additionally, they admitted to conspiring to distribute Class A drugs and transfer criminal proceeds. All three individuals are set to be sentenced today by the Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean.