BREAKING NEWS Former Premier League player 'threw away' his professional career for a £5,000 pay-day drug deal, judge says as he locks him up for four years

Daily Mail​

a day ago

A former Premier League player 'threw away' his professional career for a four-jail term over a £5,000 pay day for a drug deal, a judge said today.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, who played for Arsenal and a string of other clubs, arranged for his girlfriend and another friend to bring suitcases with what the women thought was gold into the UK from Thailand.
But the luggage was filled with 132lb of cannabis which was found when they were stopped and searched at Stansted Airport, leading to Emmanuel-Thomas' arrest.
Within days of being charged, he was sacked by Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton and is now starting his time behind bars after admitting cannabis importation with a street value of £600,000 worth of the Class B drug.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard he had offered the two women £2,500 for a free holiday to Thailand, while he was expecting just £5,000 if the operation was successful.
It is understood he was acting as an intermediary between suppliers in Thailand, where he played between 2019 and 2020, and drug pushers in the UK.
Sentencing him, Judge Alexander Mills said: 'It was you who got those women involved. They would be taking the primary risk of going to prison.
'You knew precisely who you were involved with and what you had gotten them involved with.
'Clearly, you were aware of the importation of cannabis from Thailand and the seemingly inexhaustible supply of it.
'It is through your own actions you will no longer be known as a professional footballer.
'You will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away.'
Charges against the defendant's accomplices were dropped after he told police he had tricked them into taking part in the plot.
Emmanuel-Thomas – who was once hailed as having 'big potential' by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – saw his career unravel when his girlfriend, Yasmin Piotrowska, 33, and her 28-year-old friend Rosie Rowland, were caught on September 2 last year.
Border Force officers looked in the four suitcases they had brought into the UK after flying business class from Bangkok to Stansted, via Dubai, and found the vacuum-packed drugs.
National Crime Agency officers then arrested the footballer, who had paid for the women to go on a similar trip two months earlier, at his home in Gourock, Renfrewshire, on September 18.
Prosecutor David Josse KC told the court the defendant had a 'significant role' in the drugs operation, which officers linked him to by numerous WhatsApp messages, voice notes and photos – despite him asking Miss Piotrowska, who sat in court weeping today, to 'delete everything' after her arrest.
'It became apparent that Mr Emmanuel-Thomas had been involved in their [the women's] recruitment and travel to Thailand,' Mr Josse said.
Alex Rose, defending, said his London-born client's career had helped him 'turn his back on and disassociate from negative influences and temptation'.
But the father-of-two became involved in the drugs world after falling into 'significant financial hard times' during a period when he didn't have a football contract and 'didn't realise the enormity of what he was entering into'.
He added: 'His football career is finished. That is something he has brought entirely on himself but it is a devastating blow for somebody who had such promise.'
A letter to the judge by the defendant, who wore a black roll-neck jumper beneath a grey suit jacket and was flanked by two security guards, was read out in court.
In it, he said: 'This past year has been the most harmful and eye-opening of my life. At times it has been unbearable.'
Referring to the eight months he had spent on remand, he added seeing his daughter there during visits 'broke me' - although he showed no emotion as he was sent down.
Emmanuel-Thomas was 19 when he made his Premier League debut aged 19 for Arsenal against Chelsea, shortly after captaining its youth team to the FA Youth Cup.
The technically gifted, agile striker was lauded by Wenger for his 'outstanding quality', who predicted he would 'not only be a good player but a great player'.
'It is down to how far he wants to go because he has big potential,' the Frenchman added.
Despite his promising start, Emmanuel-Thomas struggled to stay in the Arsenal first team.
He went on loan to Ipswich Town and then Bristol City, where he scored 24 goals in 82 appearances, before a spell at QPR.
In 2019, he accepted a transfer to PTT Rayong, an obscure Thai team based just south of the capital, Bangkok.
Thailand had become the first East Asian country to decriminalise cannabis just a year earlier, a decision that has led to a booming industry of commercial and cottage growers.
Emmanuel-Thomas is believed to have acquired contacts in the country's weed industry during his short spell at PTT Rayong, which folded the year he joined.
Despite continuing his professional career with an Indian team and several Scottish clubs, including Aberdeen, the footballer pursued the drug smuggling business on the side – with disastrous consequences.
David Phillips, the senior investigating officer for the NCA, said: 'We would appeal to anyone who is approached to engage in any kind of smuggling to think very carefully about the likely consequences of their actions and the potentially life-changing risks they will be taking.'