The older brother of a former Liverpool FC prodigy who he 'drew in' to a life of drug crime has lost an appeal against his own sentence for masterminding an international cocaine plot.
Jonathan Cassidy, whose younger sibling is ex-footballer turned drug trafficker Jamie, played a 'leading role' in an international drug plot which saw cocaine imported from the Netherlands which was supplied across north-west England.
Manchester Crown Court heard last year that the operation dealt with 356kg of the drug, worth around £26 million, with £10 million in cash changing hands in the space of three months.
Prosecutors also said that Cassidy sent an associate a picture of the actor playing Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman in the TV programme Narcos, known as El Chapo, and joked that they shared the same birthday.
Cassidy was jailed for 21 years and nine months in March last year, having admitted importing drugs, conspiring to supply drugs and conspiring to transfer criminal property the previous month.
