Former Arsenal star jailed for four years for role in £600k drug smuggling plot
Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been sentenced to four years in jail after last month pleading guilty to a cannabis importation charge over an attempt to smuggle £600,000 of the drug through Stansted Airport from Thailand.
The 34-year-old striker was sacked by Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton after his arrest last year. The former Arsenal academy product initially denied the charges but changed his plea to guilty at a hearing on May 7 at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex.
"It is through your own actions you will no longer be known as a professional footballer," Judge Alexander Mills said before informing the footballer of his sentence.. "You will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away."
The footballer, whose former clubs include Ipswich, Bristol City, QPR, Livingston, Aberdeen and Thai side PTT Rayong, had spent the past eight months on remand. But before his sentencing a letter from him to Judge Mills was read out in court.
"This past year has been the most harmful and eye-opening of my life," he wrote. "At times it has been unbearable." He added that he "never imagined" he could be in this situation, and he "completely regrets but takes full responsibility for" his actions.
He continued that seeing his daughter visit him in prison was one of the toughest moments of his life. "Watching her walk into the space broke me," he adds. "I never wanted her to see me in that light."
Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland, was arrested in the town by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in September 2024 after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of the class B drug as it was being smuggled through Stansted on September 2.
Border Force officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived via a flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Co-defendants Rosie Rowland and Yasmin Piotrowska, who both denied charges having flown with the drugs, were already informed that they face no further action after prosecutors offered no evidence in their case.
Ms Rowland, 29, of Southend Road, Chelmsford, Essex, and 33-year-old Ms Piotrowska, of Purves Road, Kensal Rise, north-west London, wept after learning of the verdicts last month. Ms Piotrowska, who was described in court as Emmanuel-Thomas' girlfriend, watched on from the gallery as the sentence was handed down.
The court also heard that Emmanuel-Thomas had offered the women an all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand, as well as £2,500 in cash, for their role in the plot.
Emmanuel-Thomas came through Arsenal's youth academy and spent three years on their books as a professional between 2008 and 2011. During that period he had loan spells at Blackpool, Doncaster Rovers and Cardiff City.
He was then sold to Ipswich before moving to Bristol City and on to Queens Park Rangers. By 2019 Emmanuel-Thomas was playing for Thai club PTT Rayong but in recent years has turned out for Scottish clubs Livingston, Aberdeen and Greenock Morton.
He also won a number of England underage caps.
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