Former Liverpool player turned drug dealer jailed for eight years
A former Liverpool footballer who joined a drugs gang after quitting the professional game has been jailed for eight years.
Layton Maxwell scored on his debut at Anfield as a 19-year-old after coming through the ranks alongside England stars Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.
But his career never took off, and he ended up turning to a life of crime as he slipped further down the leagues.
Now 43, he has been locked up after letting a crime group use his home in Cardiff as a safe house for storing drugs in a £6 million racket.
The city’s crown court heard Maxwell was paid £500 a month to act as a ‘courier’ for gang bosses.
He was one of eight defendants jailed for 80 years at Cardiff Crown Court – with more gang members yet to be sentenced.
Maxwell was arrested as part of a UK-wide investigation called Operation Venetic into organised crime which saw millions of pounds worth of drugs and cash seized.
More than 60 kilos of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin with a street value of an estimated £6 million and £2,500,000 in cash were seized in police raids.
Organised crime officers found drugs, cash, and weighing equipment at his house.
Maxwell dreamed of the big time when he scored at the Kop end on his debut in 1999 but never played for the first team again.
At the time he said: ‘I scored, and you really think you’ve made it when that happens.
‘Not many players score at the Kop End on their Liverpool debut. It was some night after that game, but I soon came back down to earth because I was training with the reserves the following week.’
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.
Maxwell then dropped through the divisions before seeing out his career in the League of Wales including spells at Bangor City and Caernarfon.
After retiring from football, he became an engineer with Vodafone and also took charge of Cardiff Draconians in Welsh football’s third tier but stepped down in December due to increased work commitments.
Maxwell, of Rhiwbina, Cardiff, admitted conspiracy to supply the Class A drug cocaine and was jailed for eight years.
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