On the bench at Manchester Crown Court he gave the impression of a familiar-looking stranger, brilliantly reminiscent of a remote past.
Jamie Cassidy was one of the most promising young footballers at Liverpool, England’s most successful club, a player considered smart enough to train with his national team ahead of Euro 1996.
Today, Cassidy has been jailed for thirteen years and three months for his involvement in a plot involving South American drug cartels that saw 356 kg (784 lb) of cocaine with an estimated value of £28 million ($35. 8 million) flood cities in northern England.
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Cassidy, now 46, did not play a “pivotal” role like his brother Jonathan, 50, who was sentenced to 21 years and nine months, but it was still “significant,” according to Judge Sir Ian Dove.
Jamie’s task was to “make sure everything went well” once the drugs arrived in Liverpool from the Netherlands, hidden in changed vehicles. He acted on orders and earned a salary for his “managerial” contribution, which consisted of taking care of the collection and delivery of approximately 150 kg of drugs.
Huge profits were laundered every month, but the Cassidys’ business came to a halt after French authorities intercepted the EncroChat messaging service, once the criminal community’s favorite communication tool.
Jonathan Cassidy and Nasar Ahmed, 51, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to import and obtain Class A drugs and launder money, while Jamie admitted to obtaining and laundering money. Like Jonathan, Ahmed was sentenced to 21 years and nine months.
In pre-trial detention since November 2020, former footballer Cassidy had more than three years to talk about his future.
Perhaps that’s why on Wednesday, as he stepped down the stairs leading to the cells of Manchester Crown Court, he gave the impression of being calm and focused, when the scale of the fees against him was laid bare in a legal setting for the first time.
In his closing notes, the judge cautioned that it “seemed likely” that Jamie had been dragged by his brother into a “business” that he also described as “sophisticated. “
Each offender will serve part of their sentence before being released on leave.
During a hearing that lasted two days, there was only a brief mention of Cassidy’s life as a footballer whose ability was so vast that his calling seems in the same sentences as those of Liverpool’s true greats.
In 1994, two summers before Cassidy was covered by long-time internationals Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher in Liverpool’s under-18 team that won the FA Youth Cup by beating a West Ham United side that included Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand, he played for England as they reached the quarter-finals of the European Under-16 Championship in the Republic of Ireland.
As a centre-forward, the esteem in which he was held was reflected in the fact that he had been given the number 10 shirt of that England team, while Emile Heskey, who six years later would sign for Liverpool from Leicester City for a record payment of £11 million, had to settle for the number 12.
Carragher has become a legendary figure at Liverpool, making 737 appearances, second on the club’s all-time list after Ian Callaghan’s 857. However, when England’s youth squad arrived, Cassidy was called up ahead of him and David Thompson, who went on to feature in 56 first-team appearances for Liverpool before triumphing in midfield roles at Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers.
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Thompson came from Birkenhead, which is separated from Liverpool by the River Mersey. In the early 1990s, Cassidy and Carragher, born in the same school year, were the city’s two most productive young players for their age group.
While Carragher came from Bootle and went to Savio Salesian College, representing the Sefton Boys, Cassidy played for the Liverpool Boys after attending the Alsop programme, where veteran Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier taught when he lived in the city in the late 1960s and early 1960s. 1970s.
Cassidy Walton’s territory and the labyrinth of streets near City Road near Everton’s Goodison Park stadium, made famous in 1993 for their proximity to the old railway line where two-year-old James Bulger murdered through two 10-year-old boys. Old boys.
Much of the reporting that followed painted a still-bleak picture of the region and of a “childish” culture where young people roamed freely after dark, wreaking havoc. Little attention or sympathy was paid to a community that had been compared, in an article published in the European newspaper Union, to some of the poorest regions of southern Italy and the former East Germany.
Prior to signing for Liverpool, Cassidy played for a Sunday League team affiliated with a pub called The Pacific. This brought him into contact with Carragher for the first time, as he signed with another team in the same league, Merton Villa. Young people from the Pacific, such as Jon Murphy, Ged Hennigan and Dominic Morley, would sign up for Liverpool and Everton’s youth systems. But it was Cassidy who went further.
In his early years at Liverpool, he played up front with Carragher. Both men were so smart that Liverpool managers allowed them to play two years above their age group, even though they knew they weren’t physically strong enough. This meant that, at times, one replaced the other at half-time.
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To his family, Carragher is still “James. ” He is only known as ‘Jamie’ around the world because Steve Heighway, the headmaster of Liverpool Academy, began referring to him and Cassidy as ‘the two Jamies’ when they settled on Lilleshall, the FA’s boarding school of excellence in the Midlands of England.
Returning to Merseyside after his spell at Lilleshall in 1995, Heighway wrote in his Liverpool fitness programme column: “Both lads are wonderful players. “
– Angies Liverpool (@angiesliverpool) April 15, 2020
Cassidy also “Cass,” a player his teammates sought after for his sophisticated leadership qualities. His presence was reassuring with his regularity and maturity. Some admired him, not only for his skill but also for his sense of dress.
Its affiliates at the time, all of whom spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity due to the severity and scale of his felon case, describe Cassidy as a “stylish” player, with a shot as ferocious as his tackles. winning, I enjoyed it. In conversations, comparisons are made to Steven Gerrard, then 3 years his junior, and now one of the most important players in Liverpool’s history.
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Although he was smart in the passing game and running back, Cassidy was also left-handed, which gave him added grace. Those watching the youth groups at the time describe a footballer who had it all: a footballer smart enough to be invited to exercise. with the England senior team, under the direction of Terry Venables, in the build-up to Euro 96.
The Liverpool team that won this FA Youth Cup is described by Carragher in his autobiography as an organisation of ‘scallies’, not necessarily very talented but full of desire. Cassidy has consistently adapted seamlessly, despite betting on the left side of midfield. The victory came at an opportune time for Liverpool as the former team was criticised for its performance in the FA Cup final defeat to arch-rivals Manchester United. In the months that followed, Cassidy, Carragher, Owen, and Thompson had more exposure to the senior roster. Their performance was rewarded with new contracts, ranging from £250 to £750 per week.
In December 1996, at the age of 18, Cassidy received a team number (22) and was decided on the bench for the first team match at Anfield against Sheffield Wednesday. Although he was unable to play that day, with Liverpool trailing 1-0, he eventually made his first-team debut.
Some Liverpool managers knew him as someone different from Carragher and Thompson, who were obsessive. Carragher treated practices as if they were large-scale games, and Thompson would tell the more sensible team bosses that he would come and take his place. Cassidy may simply be competitive on the court, but his somewhat calm demeanor raised questions about his body language.
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Did he care enough? His teammates thought so. He proved this when he embarked on a reserve game shortly after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). A broken leg sidelined him for a total of 18 months, and those injuries affected 3 seasons, just as his teammates were breaking into the first team and building themselves.
Some thought this era caused him to lose a metre of pace, which was detrimental as football at the highest point has become more physical, especially in midfield. One user who understood Cassidy’s position described him as “unfortunate. “
After another long absence, his teammates were at Cassidy’s feet at Melwood, the club’s former educational ground. Above the specialized shin guards, which seemed unbreakable, it looked like one of his knees had doubled in size.
Owen is a global superstar thanks to his performances for England at the 1998 World Cup, and until the summer of 1999 he had represented Liverpool 86 times.
Carragher, meanwhile, had played 70 games and Thompson 25. Gerrard had also emerged from the youth ranks, playing thirteen games in the 1998–99 season.
After a succession of setbacks and surgeries, the 20-year-old Cassidy is still waiting for his first-team debut. All this in the context of a major cultural shift at Liverpool, initiated by coach Houllier, who set more standards. This replenishment eventually led some players, regardless of their previous status, to move on.
According to club administrators, prominent figures at the academy saw Cassidy as a great talent, even though he was never in the same league as Owen and Carragher. Those resources told The Athletic that they don’t remember him causing any mess for coaches, only pointing to injuries as the explanation for his departure.
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However, there was a surprise when he signed for Cambridge United, 4 hours away, in 1999. Cambridge was fighting to stay in the 3rd tier of English football; Many in Liverpool think Cassidy could have made a fresh start at a higher level, earning decent money, for example in Division 1 (now the Championship, England’s second tier).
Cassidy soon lost touch with the Liverpool players he had spent his teenage years with. Most of the brothers who had won the FA Youth Cup in 1996 had less in common, and while some fell into the non-league formula at clubs such as Barrow, Droylsden and Vauxhall Motors, others joined the amateur football scene in Liverpool.
Having formed a date with a woman, Cassidy has completely disappeared from the radar. Some wondered if he was too embarrassed or proud to try to climb the football ladder, given his notoriety.
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While he lost his love for the game, he didn’t show it at Cambridge, but he made little impression in a dressing room ruled by top-level professionals.
He stood out basically because he’s a Scouser, far from home. Although it was clear in the educational sessions that he is technically excellent, he may simply not emulate his teammates such as Trevor Benjamin and Martin Butler, who both signed for clubs higher up the food chain at Leicester City and Reading.
In a season in which Cambridge finished two places and four points above the relegation zone, Cassidy only played four league games, with four more appearances in the dugout.
He wasn’t one of the most experienced players at the Cambridge club to be a bad boy. “On the contrary, I liked him, he was a really great guy,” she said.
Still, he continued, he likes the type of player “who might want a rocket in the ass every now and then. “
Cassidy’s career ended at the age of 23. After brief stints with non-league groups Cambridge City and Northwich Victoria, he reappeared at Burscough, a sixth-division club in west Lancashire, 18 miles north of Liverpool, midway through pre-season. the summer of 2001.
A fixture list at the end of next season suggests he made five appearances for the club, totalling three starts.
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Money was scarce in Burscough and players received small amounts of cash. Still, the club gained a reputation as a position where players can rise through the professional ranks, thanks to manager John Davison, who worked as a schoolteacher, and his assistant, Peter King, who arrived from Liverpool and had a strong grip on a club’s local football landscape where Burscough can naturally recruit.
Those who thrived at Burscough were the forwards, such as Michael Yates (who went to Dundee in the Scottish Premier League), Ryan Lowe (Shrewsbury Town), Robbie Talbot (Morecambe) and Lee McEvilly (Rochdale).
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Cassidy, however, never got off the ground. One player believes he arrived with a back injury. Had he been more established at the club, perhaps he would have been sent to a specialist, but he believes Burscough didn’t have the means to treat him.
After a workout, Cassidy seemed to disappear for a while. Their absence has never been explained. Although he returned to the team, his time at the club was ultimately brief. Although he played, some of his teammates needed to remember the knowledge to do so: he made a slight impression.
Moreover, Carragher and Owen were now Champions League players, having won their first trophies at Liverpool, the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in the 2000–01 season. Cassidy, however, has disappeared from sight and mind. .
Cassidy is believed to have turned to the industry, where he worked with his father.
When he was arrested in 2020, a month after his brother Jonathan was arrested after landing at Manchester Airport following a flight from Dubai, officials discovered a phone encrypted with an Estonian SIM card while searching for his property.
On EncroChat, where drug deals were done with Dutch traffickers connected to cocaine cartels in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, investigators established that his username Nuclear Dog.
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In April 2020, another EncroChat user, Whiskey Wasp, contacted each other by sending a photo of his TV screen. I was on Netflix and watching El Chapo, a dramatized TV series about a Mexican drug lord. Whiskey Wasp joked that they shared the same anniversary. It turned out to be Jonathan Cassidy.
Judge Dove would later describe the comparison as a “stupid exaggeration,” though it is “not so far from reality as to be fanciful. “
According to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Jonathan was the “main character” of a cocaine importation operation that delivered quantities of the drug on an “industrial” scale.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that between March and April 2020, the Cassidy brothers were on EncroChat almost every day.
After Jonathan negotiated deals with suppliers in the Netherlands, Jamie “acted as directed” in his “operational role,” ensuring that the drugs circulated in the north of England. From there, a third man, Nasar Ahmed, who sat next to the Cassidys at The Pier today, took care of the money. On at least one occasion, an exchange was made with a reusable bag from the Asda supermarket chain.
He revealed that when one of Jonathan’s couriers stopped by the police while meeting with a vendor, he “didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the upcoming deal,” and the next day he went back to work at EncroChat.
When a shipment arrived in England, Jamie, as Nuclear Dog, would send his brother a list of the consumers and their actions. He was, in fact, the accountant for the operation. Subsequent correspondence suggests that the two are considered another encrypted device unveiled by the Sky company at the end of April, but any address updates at this point would have been too late to avoid the authorities.
On June 13, an EncroChat administrator told users that the company’s domain had been confiscated through a “government entity” and that the service may no longer guarantee security. This entity turned out to be the French intelligence services.
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That same night, online recordings showed investigators that Ahmed was looking for Emirates flights to the United Arab Emirates. He was arrested in Bury, north of Greater Manchester, the next morning.
On July 8, Jonathan used his iPad to read an article about Mark Fitzgibbon, a fugitive from Liverpool arrested in Portugal after 16 years on the run. He also read articles on the Manchester Evening News website about police operations in the city.
That night, he flew to Manchester Airport and flew to Dubai, where he told an asset agent that he had a budget of £2. 3 million to spend on a villa, which he then furnished with a bed that cost £22,000.
In late September, she searched the internet again, this time for her brother’s name, after the latter briefly left the UK. Investigators decided he was investigating whether Jamie had been arrested.
It appeared that both were innocent, but the following month Jonathan was arrested on arrival at Manchester airport after returning from Dubai and told police he “didn’t know what they were talking about”.
Jamie was arrested a month later. His defense tried to argue that he was the first of the three men to admit his role, but that admission came only after a long war to prove that EncroChat’s evidence was inadmissible.
The dismantling of EncroChat ultimately helped the National Crime Agency carry out “the UK’s largest police operation”, an operation that has since “dismantled entire organised crime groups”, leading to 746 arrests and the seizure of £54 million in money and more. more than two tons of drugs.
Cassidy will, in time, have the chance to rebuild his life, but for those who have been with him since his earliest days, there is only regret left as they see a special ability derailed.
(Top photo: Liverpool celebrate their 1996 FA Youth Cup victory, with Jamie Cassidy surrounded; Aubrey Washington/EMPICS Getty Images)