Ex-Liverpool FC football prodigy turned drugs kingpin who shipped cocaine to Scotland jailed

A former Liverpool FC prodigy who organised the distribution of hundreds of kilos of cocaine across the UK - including to Glasgow - has been jailed.

Jamie Cassidy, now 46, previously admitted his part in the multi-million pound drug operation, which shipped industrial amounts of cocaine from South America into Europe.

The operation - which is said to be one of the largest drug rackets ever encountered was led by Jamie's older brother Jonathan Cassidy, 50, alongside his business partner Nasar Ahmed, 51.

The crew transported up to 356 kilos of the class A drug, with an estimated street value of £26 million, in hidden modified vehicles. Once the cocaine landed in the UK, Jamie Cassidy distributed it across the country through a network of trusted couriers.

Now the three have been jailed for a combined total of 55 years, after admitting their role in the operation, reports Manchester Evening News.

Jamie, whose username was ‘Nuclear-Dog’, directed a team of drug dealers who sold the cocaine to various customers in Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham and Glasgow.

Jamie Cassidy previously played alongside Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen, and went onto win the FA Youth Cup in 1996 while playing for Liverpool's youth team. Liverpool beat a West Ham team which included future England stars Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.

But Jamie, a midfielder, was released without making a first team appearance after a series of injuries. He later signed for Cambridge United before playing for non-league sides.

In his 2008 autobiography, Carragher said Cassidy ‘would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn’t suffered so much with injuries’. Jamie Cassidy was arrested following the law enforcement infiltration of EncroChat,