Builder’s secret double life as ‘Britain’s El Chapo’ revealed – with Lamborghinis, cocaine binge and a £22,000 BED
A former builder’s secret double life as ‘British El Chapo’ has been exposed – with Lamborghinis, cocaine binges and a £22,000 bed.
Jonathan Cassidy – who was sentenced yesterday to 21 years and nine months after admitting he competed in Class A drugs operation – compared himself to the infamous Mexican cartel leader.
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The 50-year-old, from Crosby, Merseyside, was joined in the multi-million pound scheme by his ex-Liverpool FC wonder brother Jamie Cassidy, 46 – also locked up.
Company partner, Nasar Ahmed, 51, was also jailed.
The day before he was arrested for his part in the industrial importation of cocaine, Jonathan Cassidy went online to buy a £22,000 bed.
But as a member of Greater Manchester Police‘s organized crime unit said: “He will never do that sleep in the”.
Jonathan Cassidy was in Paris on his way back to Britain from Dubai, and the bed is said to have decorated a bedroom in his villa in the UAE.
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He had fled there when the encrypted EncroChat network – a WhatsApp for criminals – he used was cracked by the French intelligence services summer 2020.
Researchers are unsure why he returned to Britain later that year.
When he arrived at Manchester Airport on October 17, 2020, he was arrested.
Jonathan Cassidy led a lavish lifestyle.
A video shows him filming himself the driving around Dubai in one Lamborghiniwith a Louis Vuitton bag next one filled with cash for him.
On his wrist is a £250,000 Richard Mille watch.
Brother Jamie, from Knowsley, Merseyside – who worked under him – was in the same youth team as Michael Owen And Jamie Carragher.
Liverpool wonder Jamie Cassidy
Former Liverpool wonder Jamie Cassidy once played alongside stars Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen.
He helped the Reds win the FA Youth Cup in 1996, beating a West Ham United team featuring Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand.
Cassidy was signed by Liverpool FC as a schoolboy and flourished in the club’s youth set-up.
During his teenage years he became one of the country’s top scorers and was chosen, along with Carragher, to attend the FA’s Center of Excellence in Lilleshaw.
He later left Liverpool for Cambridge United and fell into non-league football.
In his 2008 autobiography, Carragher said Cassidy would have been a “certain Liverpool regular” had injuries not ended his career in top-flight football.
Without football to fall back on, Cassidy turned to a life of crime with his longtime brother Jonathan Cassidy, 50.
The siblings had both invested their drugs money on property.
After Jonathan Cassidy first arrived in the UAE, he tasked estate agents with finding him a villa with a budget of £2.5 million.
Ahmed, from Bury, Greater Manchester, had previously been jailed for two years in 2001 for possessing a firearm and assisting an offender.
It followed a nightclub shooting last year, in which gunman Wayne McDonald was jailed for life in 2010 after years on the run.
Joshua Avis – a fourth alleged member of the Cassidy gang – remains at large after being the only one of the four to be granted bail.
GMP’s takedown of EnchroChat and with it fellow drug lord Leon Atkinson – an associate of spree killer Dale Cregan – eventually led them to the Cassidys.
Atkinson had bought class A drugs from Ahmed, who police subsequently discovered was the financial arm of an importing company working with Jonathan Cassidy.
Ahmed arranged the money transfer via Bitcoin or unregistered bankers to Amsterdam or elsewhere before the drugs were released and the elder Cassidy shipped them to Britain.
Jamie Cassidy acted as logistics manager and was responsible for distribution.
The cocaine, originating from Columbia and other South American countries, was brought from Amsterdam in trucks with hidden compartments and distributed to Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, among others.
The Manchester Evening News Reports Detective Chief Inspector Roger Smethurst: “Interestingly, when EncroChat broke down, Jonathan Cassidy went to Dubai and was there for a while and then, whether it was because there were never any visits to his home address or no questions were ever made about him, he came back to Britain and was arrested.
‘He wasn’t known to us, and certainly not to Merseyside Police, he was just a builder.
“He obviously went abroad because he was worried and then he thinks the heat is out and back.”
Led by Jonathan Cassidy and Ahmed, the gang is said to have imported almost £26 million worth of cocaine into Britain.
Jonathan Cassidy’s Encrochat username was “Whiskey-Wasp”; Ahmed “Dotted Jaw”; Jamie Cassidy and “Nucleardog”.
While watching an episode of NarcosJonathan Cassidy sent an image to a friend joking that he and the drug lord shared the same birthday.
His friend replied: “coincidence, I don’t think it is.”
The trial was scheduled to take place on February 9, but the defendants pleaded guilty before it could begin, despite challenging the legality of the evidence for months.
Jonathan Cassidy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to evade the fraudulent ban on the importation of Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.
Ahmed admitted the same offenses as Jonathan Cassidy.
Jamie Cassidy admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.
Jonathan Cassidy received 21 years and nine months in prison; Jamie Cassidy for 13 years and three months, and Ahmed for 21 years and nine months.
Liverpool-based Avis, who went on the run, had pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiracy to fraudulently evade the ban on the import of Class A drugs x 2 and to conspiracy to conceal/convert criminal property /to disguise.