Inside lavish life of ’El Chapo of the UK’ who fled to Dubai and blew £22k on bed before his arrest

Jonathan Cassidy was arrested at Manchester Airport in 2020 after returning from Dubai where he had fled to when the EncroChat app was hacked

A man known as the ’El Chapo of the UK’ had a secret life full of fancy cars, drugs, and splashed out on a £22,000 bed just before his arrest.

Jonathan Cassidy was caught by police when he came back from Dubai and stopped in Paris. He was trying to improve his home and was shopping for an expensive bed online before a police officer said of the crime kingpin, "He’ll never sleep in it". Cassidy had fled to Dubai after a secret chat service was found out by the police in 2020.

No one knows why he returned to the UK, but on October 17, 2020, the police caught him at Manchester Airport. Jonathan ran a big drug business with his brother, who once played football with Liverpool, and their friend Nasar Ahmed. But it all fell apart, says the Manchester Evening News, reports the Daily Star.

Jonathan Cassidy, of Crosby, the head of an OCG responsible for importing cocaine on an industrial scale to the north west ( Image: No credit)

Jonathan liked to show off his wealth, like driving a Lamborghini in Dubai, holding lots of cash, and wearing a pricey watch. When he got to Dubai, he told people to find him a villa that cost £2.5m. He and his brother Jamie, who used to play football with famous players like Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, spent their drug money on houses, reports the MEN.

Their partner in crime, Ahmed from Bury, was already sent to jail for two years in 2001 for possession of a firearm and assisting an offender. This was after someone shot a gun at a club in Bolton in 2000. Wayne McDonald, a shooter, was jailed for life in 2010 after being on the run for years.

But another suspected gang member, Joshua Avis, has vanished after he was the only one of four to get bail. Now, GMP is asking people to help find him. A friend of murderer Dale Cregan was caught by GMP, leading them to the Cassidys. They thought Leon Atkinson had led a Tameside crime group for ten years.

Atkinson was once blamed for making Cregan kill Mark Short, Cregan’s first victim, because Mark’s group hit Atkinson’s mum in a pub. He was cleared in 2013 but got 15 years in jail in 2022 for drugs and money crimes.

Jamie Cassidy, of Knowsley Lane, Knowsley, headed the cartel’s logistics operation ( Image: No credit)

Detective Chief Inspector Roger Smethurst from GMP said: "This investigation (into the Cassidys) came to light through the taking down of EncroChat, when we identified Leon Atkinson, who was subject of GMP interest for a number of years after Cregan. As we looked at Atkinson we realised he was buying his class A drugs from Nasar Ahmed. We then began to look at Ahmed and realised he was the financial arm of a massive importation business working in conjunction with Jonathan Cassidy.

"What we discovered was that Ahmed arranged the transfer of money via Bitcoin or unregistered bankers to Amsterdam or elsewhere and once those payments are confirmed drugs are released, which Jonathan Cassidy was responsible for bringing into the country. His brother, Jamie, was his logistics manager, responsible for how it gets moved around the country, how it gets distributed.

"Nasar Ahmed had been with the Cassidys to watch Liverpool FC play, they had got him seats. Cassidy took pictures of his own house and sent them to Ahmed. His house was fantastic, on the Wirral."

The cocaine, coming all the way from Columbia and other South American spots, was sneaked into Amsterdam in lorries with secret spots and then spread out to big cities in England and Scotland like Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow. DCI Smethurst said: "The imports were 120 to 150 kilos at a time."

Nasar Ahmed, of Bury, headed the financial arm of the OCG ( Image: No credit)

The case against the Cassidys and Ahmed was one of the first times EncroChat messages were used as evidence in court. DCI Smethurst explained: "They have challenged at every level the validity of the evidence - how the data was obtained - suggesting it was intercepted by law enforcement as opposed to it being data that had already been transmitted, and was harvested later on from servers where it was being stored.

"We have been to the Court Of Appeal and the High Court on two or three occasions when the legality was challenged. It has almost become the lead case nationally for how law enforcement got the data and whether it was legal under current UK legislation." The National Crime Agency led the fight against the challenges to the evidence by the four defendants. After trying all possible ways to escape the case against them, the Cassidys, Ahmed, pleaded guilty.

"Interestingly when EncroChat broke Jonathan Cassidy went to Dubai and was over there for a period of time and then, whether it was because there were never any visits to his home address or there were never inquiries made about him, he came back to the UK, and was arrested. He was not known to us or particularly to Merseyside Police - he was just a builder. He has obviously gone abroad because he is worried and then he thinks the heat is off has come back."

Leon Atkinson, from Atherton, convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and jailed for 15 years in 2022 ( Image: No credit)

DC Mark Walby, who led the investigation described the cartel’s banking operation, saying: "Nasar would task his courier to go and collect cash from all over the country and bring it back to Liverpool where it was counted and checked. About £5m was collected. The courier was just given a password and would then meet people who handed over sports bags full of cash. They would not collect or deliver more than £250,000 because of the risk of getting caught, that was their cap."

During a surveillance operation Greater Manchester Police recovered £500,000. They saw Ahmed’s money guy, Abdul Ghafar, 46, go to Liverpool to pick up bags of cash. Then he went to Rochdale to give them to another man, but the cops got him and found £250,000 in his car boot. Ghafar tried to go back to Liverpool, but the police stopped him on the M62 and found another £250,000.

In 2022, Ghafar was sent to jail with Atkinson. Ahmed had a normal house in Bury but also spent lots of time in Dubai. DCI Smethurst said: "I think this OCG was very significant regarding the supply of class A drugs in the north west if not the north of England. They have got to have been one of the lead OCGs in the region because of the scale of the operation and the volume of drugs coming into the country and the frequency.

The outdoor gym at drug boss Jonathan Cassidy’s home on The Wirral, where neighbours included famous faces (Image: No credit)

"They were picking up cash in London too, which means they probably supplied drugs there. Across the country, they were big names in selling class A drugs." Jonathan Cassidy and Nasar Ahmed might have brought nearly £26 million worth of cocaine into the UK. Jonathan Cassidy used the nickname "Whiskey-Wasp" on Encrochat, and Ahmed was "Dottedjaw".

Jamie Cassidy was known as "Nucleardog" and Joshua Avis as "Octo-Jungle". Jonathan Cassidy once said his illegal work was like that of the famous Mexican drug boss, El Chapo. He even sent a photo to a mate while watching Narcos, showing they both had the same birthday.

His friend joked back, ’coincidence I think not’. Police went through six weeks of messages from April to May 2020. They found out that the group’s secret phones were also being used for everyday chat, including sharing photos of family gatherings. Jonathan Cassidy even revealed his brother Jamie Cassidy once played for Liverpool FC.

Blocks of cocaine recovered by police after smashing the drugs operation headed by Jonathan Cassidy and Nasar Ahmed (Image: No credit)

In one case, Jonathan Cassidy sent a normal photo of a box of Panadol. But the picture was so clear that forensic teams could see fingerprints on it, which matched Jonathan Cassidy’s. More photos showed the links between Cassidy, Ahmed, and their wives. Also, texts showed Cassidy trying to contact Ahmed’s family urgently the day after police raided Ahmed’s house.

On 18 May 2020, Jonathan Cassidy was caught calling undercover police ’quick scruffy people with rucksacks’. This happened just as one of his friends was being arrested by these officers. A court date was set for Monday, February 9th, but they pleaded guilty before it even started, even after spending months trying to argue that the evidence wasn’t legal.

Jonathan Cassidy, a 50 year old from Warren Road, Crosby, admitted to planning to sneak class A drugs into the country, selling them, and then hiding the money. Ahmed, a 51 year old from Moreton Drive, Bury, confessed to the same crimes. Jamie Cassidy, a 46 year old from Knowsley Lane, Knowsley, admitted to selling class A drugs and hiding the money.

Jonathan Cassidy was sentenced to 21 years and nine months in jail; Jamie Cassidy received a prison term of 13 years and three months, while Ahmed was imprisoned for 21 years and nine months. Meanwhile, Joshua Avis from Bancroft Road, Liverpool - who is on the run - had previously pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing.

Joshua Avis, an alleged member of the OCG who has gone on the run after getting bail (Image: No credit)

He was accused of plotting to smuggle Class A drugs into the country twice and stashing away illicit cash. DC Walby stated: "The individuals jailed today were from the upper echelons of organised criminals that operate in Greater Manchester, and, thanks to the infiltration of EncroChat, we were able to see their conversations and activity play out in a way we’ve never been able to before. 

"Jonathan Cassidy and his colleagues got far too comfortable with their encrypted phones and began bragging about their personal lives, but this just confirmed what we already knew about them. Ironically, it was this bravado and these messages which have landed them in jail for a long time.

"This has been a long running and complex case, and I would like to thank the NCA and CPS for their pursuit in defending the legal challenges associated with this case. Without, these convictions may not have been possible.

"By dismantling this OCG, we’ve put an end to the harm they were bringing to communities in Greater Manchester and further afield. The volume of drugs this gang were involved in should not be underestimated, and their contribution to serious harm and violence, which is inextricably linked to the drugs trade, is undeniable."

Sophia Martinez