Ex-Liverpool player jailed after becoming cocaine 'courier' for £6m drugs gang
A former Liverpool midfielder who quit football and became a cocaine dealer has been jailed for eight years.
Layton Maxwell was just 19 when he scored on his debut at Anfield in 1999, having come through the ranks with England stars Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.
However, he never played for the first team again and was released by the club in 2001 before playing for a number of Welsh clubs, then later joining a cocaine crime gang.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Maxwell, now 43, allowed a multi-million pound drugs gang to use his home in Cardiff as a safehouse for storing drugs in a £6m racket.
Organised crime officers found drugs, cash, and weighing equipment at his house and prosecutors said he was paid £500-a-month for his role as a "courier" for gang bosses.
He was arrested as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) UK-wide investigation called Operation Venetic into organised crime.
Raids were carried out after officers busted open an encrypted messaging service that had been used by gang leaders.
More than 60 kilos of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin with a street value of an estimated £6m and £2,500,000 in cash was seized in police raids.
Maxwell, who also played for Cardiff City and Swansea City, was one of eight defendants jailed for 80 years in total – with more gang members yet to be sentenced.
Jailing Maxwell for eight years after he admitted conspiracy to supply the Class A drug cocaine.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke described it as a "dirty trade bringing misery to many.”
Assistant chief constable Dave Thorne, added: ”We are committed to disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups, bringing people before the courts and removing drugs from our streets."
Maxwell, of Rhiwbina, Cardiff, trained with the reserves the week after he scored for Liverpool on his debut.
After roughly a year without first-team action the Welsh winger was loaned to Stockport County for a season before moving to Cardiff City and then Swansea.
Having left Swansea City, Maxwell dropped through the divisions before seeing out his career in the League of Wales, including spells at Bangor City and Caernarfon.
He became an engineer with Vodafone after quitting football and also took charge of Cardiff Draconians in Welsh football's third tier, but stepped down in December due to increased work commitments.
