Ex-Liverpool prodigy Cassidy, 46, is jailed for 13 years for role in drug plot

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