A former Liverpool FC youth prodigy has been jailed after being discovered to be involved in an international drug empire ran via Encrochat.
The former player, who was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday, was involved in an industrial cocaine importation racket.
He was arrested and charged alongside his 50-year-old brother, and a third man, with the trio being responsible for the operation of the business.
The group used modified vehicles to move cocaine that had travelled over the Atlantic to the Netherlands, before finding its way to Liverpool via the gang.
The trio used Encrochat to run the Liverpool based drug empire – an encrypted communications platform frequently used by organised criminals.
The Encrochat network that they were using was said to have been infiltrated by French law enforcement in 2020, who passed the intelligence on to British Police. The former Liverpool prodigy’s brother fled to Dubai after being tipped off to this fact.
He returned to the UK later in the year and was subsequently arrested at Manchester Airport, with his former footballer brother arrested a month later at his home in Knowsley.
Police found a machete, an encrypted phone, and the Police file concerning the group’s drug network.
Who is the former Liverpool prodigy behind the drugs empire?
The former player guilty of operating the Encrochat drug network in Liverpool is one Jamie Cassidy.
He played alongside Liverpool greats such as Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, and also lifted the FA Youth Cup with Liverpool in 1996, when he was considered a hot prospect on the football scene. He was even England’s U16 top goal scorer by the age of 15.
In Jamie Carragher’s biography, Carra, the former Liverpool defender said Cassidy “would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn’t suffered so much with injuries.”
Despite making an impression at youth level, Cassidy never managed a first team appearance Liverpool, and eventually went on to begin his senior career with Cambridge United.
He played 10 matches across all competitions for Cambridge, before moving on to one-league football.
Jamie, now 46, plead guilty to conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
His brother Jonathan, 50, and business partner Nasar Ahmed, 51, both plead guilty to conspiracy to evade the fraudulent prohibition on importation of class A drugs, conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.
Whilst using the Encrochat platform for their operation, which has been described by Police as “WhatsApp for criminals”, James used the code name ‘Nuclear-Dog’ whilst his brother Jonathan went by ‘Whisky-Wasp’.
Cassidy’s sentencing comes just a month after a former Crystal Palace player was arrested for a £1 million meth haul!
Prosecutors say that their discovery of the Cassidy brother’s operation alongside Ahmed was only a small peak into much larger operation, which they believe has been operational for many years prior to their arrest.
