The "bravado" of a former Liverpool and England football prodigy who "bragged" about his life of drug dealing and organized crime helped police arrest him, a judge said as he jailed him.
Jamie Cassidy, 46 - who played alongside Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher as a schoolboy - was one of the country's most promising footballers and was predicted to have a bright future.
But after suffering a knee and leg injury, he was let go by Liverpool at the age of 21 and then turned to organized crime, along with his older brother Jonathan and Nasar Ahmed, an associate. On Thursday he was sentenced to thirteen years and three months in prison.
In 2020, Cassidy was arrested as part of a police operation that uncovered a plot to bring 356kg of cocaine from South America to Britain.
Nicknamed Nuclear Dog, prosecutors said he held a "management role" in the crime network, overseeing the distribution of drugs to dealers across the country and acting as an accountant.
His conviction and prison sentence sealed an extraordinary fall from grace for a footballer who at the age of 15 was England's leading goalscorer.
Cassidy, from Knowsley, on Merseyside, was signed by Liverpool at the age of nine and played in the club's trophy-winning youth side in the 1990s. He later won a place at the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall, where he played alongside many of the game's future superstars.
But after breaking into the first team, the attacking midfielder's career was cut short by a series of injuries that robbed him of his pace. Liverpool let him go in 1999 and he signed for Cambridge United, where he played a few games before switching to non-league football.
Prosecutors said he then conspired with his brother, a former builder, and other criminal associates to flood the north of England with cocaine.
Manchester Crown Court heard the gang used encrypted messaging platform EncroChat to communicate and were working on plans to import drugs worth £28 million when they were caught.
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Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said Cassidy held a managerial role at the network for which he was paid a salary. He said the gang was crushed in 2020 when police gained access to EncroChat.
Cassidy was arrested at his home in Knowsley in November 2020, about a month after his brother was arrested after flying to Britain from Dubai.
In mitigation, Paul Greaney KC, his barrister, said that although Cassidy had received wages for his services, he received no share of the huge profits generated by the drug deals. "He acted under a significant degree of control with only a limited degree of autonomy," he told the court.
Mr Greaney said Cassidy was "a footballer of exceptional talent and promise", adding: "He was signed by Liverpool at the age of nine. With Jamie Carragher he was given one of 16 places in the FA Center of Excellence.
"At the age of 15, he was the top scorer for England Under 16 in the 1993/94 season with six goals, including three in the European Under 16 Championship. In the following season he was top scorer for the England Under 16 team.
"He was part of the Liverpool team that won the FA Youth Cup, alongside Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen. He then broke into the first team and made a number of appearances, but injuries ruined his career."
Cassidy was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to conceal, transfer and conceal criminal proceeds. Jonathan Cassidy and Ahmed were both sentenced to 21 years and nine months for conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to conceal, transfer and conceal criminal proceeds.
Detective Inspector Marc Walby, from serious organized crime group Greater Manchester Police, said: "The individuals in custody today were from the upper echelons of organized criminals operating in Greater Manchester and EncroChat's interception allowed us to track their conversations. and activities are running in a way that we have never been able to carry out before.
"Jonathan Cassidy and his colleagues became way too comfortable with their encrypted phones and started bragging about their personal lives, but this only confirmed what we already knew about them. Ironically, it was this bravado and these messages that landed them in prison for a long time.
"This has been a long-running and complex case, and I would like to thank the NCA and CPS for their efforts in defending the legal challenges associated with this case. Without this, these convictions may not have been possible.
"By dismantling this operation, we have put an end to the damage they caused to communities in Greater Manchester and beyond. The amount of drugs these men were involved in cannot be underestimated, and their contribution to the serious harm and violence that is inextricably linked to the drug trade is undeniable."
Wayne Johns, senior investigating officer of the National Crime Agency's Operation Venetic, said: "The Cassidy brothers and Ahmed have pleaded guilty in this case after years of persistently questioning the legality of the case against them.
"The NCA and the Crown Prosecution Service have worked with GMP to vigorously defend the challenge, and we now see the trio where they belong.
"Operation Venetic is the deepest ever penetration into Britain by organized crime groups, which cause so much damage to our society. To date, nearly 1,500 perpetrators have been convicted and many more are suspected in the legal and judicial system.
"In total, more than 3,300 arrests have been made in Great Britain and more than 2,000 suspects have been charged. Offenders have been convicted for more than 10,600 years. The drug seizures included almost six and a half tons of cocaine, more than three tons of heroin and more than twenty tons of cannabis."
