Former Liverpool football prodigy Jamie Cassidy has been jailed for his role in a drug conspiracy.
As a teenager, Cassidy played alongside Liverpool FC legends Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher and was destined for a glittering career in the game.
Aged 15, he was England's leading goal scorer - even netting three in the European Championships in 1994 - and winning a place at the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall.
A few years later the attacking midfielder was part of the Liverpool team that won the club's first FA Youth Cup with a 4-1 win over two legs against a famously good West Ham team, featuring Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
But, when his fledgling career was wrecked by injury, and he was released from his beloved Liverpool FC, Cassidy, now 46, turned to drugs and organised crime.
Today his fall from grace was outlined to Manchester Crown Court after he admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.
Cassidy will learn his sentence tomorrow, but is likely to be jailed for a long time for his part in the organised crime group that plotted to bring millions of pounds of cocaine to the UK from South America.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said Cassidy played a 'managerial role,' receiving a wage from the 'business' which was run by his older brother, Jonathan, 50, and his associate Nasar Ahmed, 51.
The three men were charged over the importation of 356 kilos of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £28milllion, which they brought over from South America via Amsterdam and into the United Kingdom in two consignments, in March and April 2020.
Mr Wright said that the men used encrypted EncroChat devices, described as a 'WhatsApp for criminals,' to co-ordinate the purchase, importation, sale and distribution of cocaine across the north of England.
Jamie Cassidy, whose username was Nuclear-Dog, directed a team of drug dealers who sold the cocaine to clients in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow, Mr Wright said.
He also oversaw the collection of cash and acted as his brother's 'bookkeeper,' the court heard.
Mr Wright said the operation was exposed when EncroChat was cracked by the French intelligence service and messages about the March and April consignments were revealed.
Ahmed was arrested at his home in Bury, Greater Manchester, in June 2020, and a month later Jonathan Cassidy fled to Dubai, where he viewed a £2.3million villa he hoped to buy. As part of the purchase he requested a bed costing £22,000.
But, when his younger brother was not arrested by police, Jonathan Cassidy was given a 'false sense of security,' Mr Wright said. He returned to the UK in October, but was promptly arrested.
Jamie Cassidy was arrested at his home, in Knowsley, Merseyside, a month later.
In mitigation, Paul Greaney KC, for Jamie Cassidy, said his client was paid a wage for his role and did not share in the proceeds from the sale of the drugs.
'He was acting under a significant degree of control with only a limited degree of autonomy,' the barrister said.
Outlining his client's fall from grace, Mr Greaney told the court: 'Jamie Cassidy was a footballer of exceptional talent and promise. He was signed by Liverpool at the age of nine. With Jamie Carragher he was awarded one of 16 places at the FA Centre of Excellence.
'At the age of 15, he was the leading scorer for the England under 16 team in the 93/94 season with six goals including three in the European under-16 championships.
'In the following season he was the top scorer for the England under 16-team.
'He was a part of the Liverpool team which won the FA Youth Cup alongside Jamies Carragher and Michael Owen. He then broke into the first team making a number of appearances but injuries wrecked his career.' In his 2008 autobiography Carragher, who is two months younger than Cassidy, said his youth teammate would have been a 'certain Liverpool regular,' but for injuries.
Cassidy suffered a serious knee and leg injury which robbed him of his pace and he was released by Liverpool FC in 1999 aged 21. He played a few games for Cambridge United, before drifting into non-league football and eventually into organised crime.
Jonathan Cassidy, a former builder, and Ahmed both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of controlled drugs, as well as conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
How a Liverpool prodigy once picked over Steven Gerrard swamped Britain's streets with cocaine: Inside the dramatic rise and fall of 'certain future international' Jamie Cassidy who turned to organised crime when injury left his football career in tatters
By Cameron Roy
It is an academy famed for producing some of England's most talented players of recent times.
Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and, more recently, Trent Alexander-Arnold are among the stellar names to have graduated through Liverpool's youth system, before going on to become global superstars.
Not to mention, of course, the jewel in the crown, Steven Gerrard - argued by some as being the greatest player to ever pull on the club shirt.
But even Gerrard was once operating in the shadow of Jamie Cassidy - the teenager picked ahead of the future England captain for the FA's centre of excellence, and considered by many the most prestigious talent of all.
At the age of 15, Cassidy was the leading scorer for the England under-16 team in the 1993-94 season with six goals, including three in the European under-16 championships.
A few years later he, alongside teammates Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen, was a key player of the Liverpool team that won the club's first FA Youth Cup with a 4-1 win over two legs against a famously good West Ham team, featuring Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
Pictures from the day show Cassidy's face beaming with joy as he held the trophy aloft at Anfield.
A first-team contract was swiftly offered by Liverpool and signed.
The manager of the England senior team Glenn Hoddle was so impressed with what he saw he invited Cassidy to spend time with the squad before one match because he was sure he would be a future international.
But despite the high hopes from his family, friends, managers and football fans - Cassidy would never play a match for Liverpool.
He would be released by the club in 1999 at the age of 21, before playing a few games for Cambridge United, then drifting into non-league football.
Cassidy's life took a different path. This week, now 46, he will be sentenced for being involved in an industrial scale importation of cocaine from South America to Europe.
Next to him in the dock will be his elder brother Jonathan, 50, a former builder who headed the operation that for several years saw regular shipments of cocaine to Amsterdam from cartels in South America.
From the Netherlands the drugs would be hidden in modified vehicles and brought to Liverpool, where Jamie would distribute it to associates across England and Scotland.
The multimillion-pound enterprise involved a money laundering operation and the brothers invested in several pieces of property and land in Liverpool.
Jonathan has one large area of land, near Jamie's home, with enough water in it he was planning on turning into a fishing lake, according to The Times.
Instead of the glittering football career that his friends and teammates enjoyed, Cassidy is looking at a long prison sentence.
Despite joining the Liverpool Academy aged 12, his career began to take a downward turn after a series of injuries.
A serious knee and leg injury robbed him of his pace and left him struggling as he matured.
Jamie Carragher, who became a Liverpool defensive legend with 508 first-team appearances from 1996 to 2013 is just two months younger than Jamie.
In his 2008 autobiography he said Cassidy would have been a 'would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn't suffered so much with injuries'.
Gerrard also mentions Cassidy in his 2006 autobiography, mentioning his 'pure quality' banter and expressing jealousy at his opportunities to train at the Liverpool training centre as a youngster.
But Cassidy is far from the only promising young footballer to have a career cut short due to injuries.
However with a potential promise so huge from himself and those around him, the spectacular fall is thought to have devastated him.
Manchester Crown Court will hear on Wednesday how he turned his competitive drive into a criminal empire.
He was arrested in the wake of the law enforcement infiltration of EncroChat, an encrypted communications system favoured by organised criminals.
The end-to-end phone network code was cracked by the French intelligence services in the summer of 2020, and the information was passed to the UK's National Crime Agency.
It led to the discovery that Cassidy, along with his brother Jonathan and their business partner, Nasar Ahmed, had been operating undetected for years.
Authorities discovered in six weeks alone Jonathan organised deals of 356kg of South American cocaine to come to Amsterdam - worth £28 million in UK street value.
The sophisticated operation involved the expert movement of money around the world - undetected by the authorities.
Jamie was eventually arrested in October 2020 at the airport after returning from Dubai.
In his house the police found a black machete, an encrypted telephone and a Greater Manchester police case summary of the operation that would lead to the gang members’ arrest.