An oasis for the rich and a playground for fugitives - why criminals are flocking to Dubai
30.03.2024 - 20:09
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
When drugs kingpin Jonathan Cassidy filmed himself driving around Dubai in his Lamborghini he was following a well-trodden path. The Middle Eastern city has become a destination for criminal fugitives.
Cassidy fled there after being spooked by French intelligence services cracking the EncroChat encrypted network being used by him and other villains. This month he, his brother Jamie, and business partner, Nasar Ahmed, from Bury, were given lengthy jail sentences for their role in importing and distributing huge quantities of cocaine, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Jonathan was arrested at Manchester Airport after flying back from Dubai, mistakenly thinking he was one of the lucky ones who had not been identified as a busy criminal by the taking down of EncroChat. Although Ahmed lived in a modest semi in Moreton Road, Elton, he spent months each year in the United Arab Emirates city.
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The scale of the gang's business was reflected in Jonathan's lifestyle trappings. The phone clip shows the former builder filming himself driving around Dubai. The phone camera zooms in on the Lamborghini crest on the steering wheel, and then pans to a Louis Vuitton bag next to him stuffed with cash, and the £250,000 Richard Mille watch on his wrist.
Jonathan had acquired a villa in Dubai, and the night before he was arrested he went online to buy a £22,000 bed for one of its bedrooms. He saw the city as a long-term bolthole and could have evaded justice for years had he not come home.
Following his conviction, which saw the three men jailed for a combined total of more than 55 years, Detective Chief Inspector Roger Smethurst of Greater