An FA Youth Cup winning footballer with Liverpool was jailed today for 13 years and three months, after admitting his role in a cocaine conspiracy that involved South American cartels.
Jamie Cassidy, aged 46, represented England at youth levels before being called up by Terry Venables to train with the senior national side ahead of the 1996 European Championships.
He was arrested in 2020 with his older brother after the French intelligence service infiltrated the EncroChat messaging service.
It was established that in March and April of that year, Jonathan Cassidy, now aged 50, arranged for the smuggling of 356kg of cocaine into Liverpool from the Netherlands.
The haul, with a street value of £28m, was then distributed across the north of England by Jamie Cassidy, who was paid a wage for a “managerial” role that involved collections and deliveries.
Jonathan was considered the senior figure in the operation and he was jailed for 21 years and nine months, while co-conspirator Nasar Ahmed (51) from Bury, who dealt with the money, was also sentenced to 21 years and nine months.
In his autobiography, Jamie Carragher suggested his former teammate in the Liverpool youth system “would have been a certain regular,” in the first had he not suffered two serious injuries.
After leaving Liverpool in 1999, he joined Cambridge United in the third tier of English football before slipping briefly into the non-league system.
GO FURTHER
Jamie Cassidy – the Liverpool prodigy who became a drugs smuggler
2024-03-21 17:34:23
#Football #news #live #Premier #League #latest #international #updates
