Latest news with #RonnieStam
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Ronnie Stam, Dutch footballers and the criminal underworld: ‘Once you're in, you never get out'
From the second floor of Breda's courthouse, it was possible to make out the floodlights of the football stadium where, in happier times, Ronnie Stam had been a local celebrity. The shamed 41-year-old was about to be added to the list of footballers, or ex-footballers, who had been imprisoned for being enticed into the Dutch criminal underworld. And that list is getting bigger. Advertisement 'It's painful for Dutch football,' Evgenii Levchenko, chairman of the Dutch professional footballers association (VVCS), tells The Athletic. 'It's not good for Dutch football and it's not good for the Dutch image. And it's very painful when you see so many big, talented players who don't understand they are killing the image of our football.' Stam won the Dutch league championship with Twente in 2010 and was part of Wigan Athletic's squad the following year, albeit injured, when they beat Manchester City to win the FA Cup in one of the biggest shocks in the history of English football. On Tuesday, however, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for his part in an international drug-smuggling plot — the latest case to explain why Levchenko and his colleagues are warning the nation's footballers their industry 'is not only a magnet for the rich and beautiful, but also for criminals'. In June, the former Ajax winger Quincy Promes was extradited to the Netherlands in another high-profile case that has left Dutch football questioning itself. Promes, who earned 50 caps for the Netherlands, was sentenced to six years in prison in February last year for trafficking 1,363 kilograms (3,005lb) of cocaine with a street value estimated at £65million ($82m). Since then, he had been living as a fugitive, first in Russia and then Dubai. Then there is the story of David Mendes da Silva, another former Netherlands international, who was jailed for seven years in 2022 for helping to smuggle two consignments of cocaine, weighing 74kg and 105kg, into the country. The Da Silva case particularly hurt Levchenko, given that they had once been team-mates at Sparta Rotterdam. 'I was talking to David a month before he was caught. I asked: 'What are you doing now, David?'. He said: 'Oh, nothing much — something here, something there'. We agreed we would have to get together. Everything, to me, seemed very normal. But, in the end, these guys all did something very stupid.' Advertisement Da Silva, whose career also included spells at Ajax, NAC Breda and AZ, was also convicted of bribing a shipping clerk with a €100,000 (£90,000; $120,000) payment. 'I let certain people get too close,' he admitted in court. If that was the full extent of the issue — three multi-million-pound drug busts and three high-profile footballers in prison — it would still be shocking. Yet the Dutch authorities openly accept there have been numerous other cases whereby past and present players have hooked up with serious criminals, particularly in the last 10 to 15 years. Those players, in turn, have become involved in, or on the edges of, drug, money-laundering and match-fixing plots. And sometimes worse: weapons, shootings and death. 'The difficulty we have is that some players are so close to the criminals,' says Levchenko, VVCS chairman since 2019. 'They think they are friends. And that is the biggest mistake they can make. 'We hear it so often: 'Yeah, but he's my friend, I've known him all my life'. And I say: 'If he were your real friend, he would never transport drugs in your car. Or ask you to carry €1million of watches to different countries'. Because those are things that have happened. 'It can start with something so simple. 'Can I borrow your car? Can you look after these watches? Can you get a shirt signed for me? Fancy coming to my birthday party where I will introduce you to the other criminals?'. That is the start. And once you're in, you never get out.' Are organised criminals deliberately targeting young, impressionable footballers? Arno van Leeuwen, a retired Amsterdam detective, answered that question during an interview last year with BN DeStem, the Breda-based newspaper, in which he discussed his own experiences of liaising with Ajax and the Dutch football association (KNVB) to warn players of the dangers. Advertisement Van Leeuwen explained how, in many cases, the footballers and criminals had grown up in the same areas. He started to notice the pattern more clearly in 2015 when an Amsterdam criminal known as 'Boeloeloe' was warned by the police that his life was in danger. Boeloeloe left the police station in a leased Mercedes. When Van Leeuwen's colleagues checked the number plate, they discovered it belonged to an Ajax youth player. 'So I thought, 'Let's check all those other Ajax lease cars through the system',' said Van Leeuwen. 'And what did I know? They were often lent to criminals.' Further inquiries revealed that one of the cars had been the target of gunfire after a footballer lent it to a friend. A hail of bullets went through the rear window and lodged in the driver's seat. It was a shocking scene — so shocking that the police still use the photos in their presentations to clubs and KNVB officials. Another of the Ajax player's cars was being driven around by the son of Gwenette Martha, a career criminal who was gunned down in 2014 and left with 80 bullets in his body. And Boeloeloe? He, too, was shot dead in a separate incident. Promes signed for Ajax in 2019 and Van Leeuwen recalled the footballer being seen with well-known criminals. 'We told him: 'Those are guys who could be targets for assassinations. And you're driving around with them. If they come under fire, you're sitting next to them in the car'.' According to a file from the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, Promes was also linked to Piet Wortel, a notorious figure in the Dutch underworld. Wortel was suspected of being involved in a litany of serious crimes, including drug trafficking and the 2019 murder of ex-footballer Kelvin Maynard, a Suriname-born right-back who was shot multiple times in his car in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Advertisement Maynard, whose career included two seasons with Burton Albion in England's lower divisions, was gunned down by two masked assailants on a moped. His assassination was allegedly ordered in revenge for the theft of 400kg of cocaine, and shortly after, the 32-year-old had posted a photograph on social media showing him holding a huge wad of €50 notes. Wortel, who is serving a three-year prison term for money laundering, denies any involvement. Promes has lodged an appeal against his conviction and is fighting an additional 18-month sentence, imposed in 2023, for stabbing his cousin. The difficulty for the police, the clubs, the players association and other Dutch authorities is that there is a culture in modern-day football for many players flaunting their wealth. In that world, being rich is seen as the best way to get street cred. And, in the process, they romanticise a lifestyle of fast cars, expensive jewellery and attractive women. Levchenko says he has personally asked elite footballers from the Eredivisie, Dutch football's top flight, to reconsider what they put on social media. But do they listen? One leading international, he says, recently posted a picture of himself wearing a €200,000 watch. 'All the stars love to show off their different way of life: the cars, the beautiful women, the watches. What they don't seem to understand is that the younger players are watching them. It's wrong of the big stars. But they want to show off.' Another case relates to Romeo Castelen, a former Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag footballer who was arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport in 2019 on suspicion of laundering €2.2million. Castelen, who made 10 appearances for the Dutch national team, had €139,000 in his pocket but claimed the money was earned through football, the watch trade and casino wins. 'In the football world,' his lawyer, Evelien de Witte, told a preliminary court hearing in Zwolle last year, 'it is considered cool to show off a wad of cash in the locker room.' Castelen, 42, denies any wrongdoing. On other occasions, high-profile footballers have been seen on nights out with known criminals, often in VIP sections of bars. One infamous occasion goes back to 2013 when the waterside river party at Amsterdam's Scheepvaartmuseum turned into a shootout between rival gangs, leaving one man dead. One Netherlands international, according to the police, allowed his Porsche to be used by criminals and the car ended up riddled with bullet holes. Another issue is the frequency with which the players' properties have been used for illegal purposes. Advertisement Reports in the Dutch media have alleged that Robin van Ouwerkerk, a feared criminal who gained international notoriety for allegedly creating 'torture containers' in Brabant, was the subject of an assassination plot while living in an apartment rented out by Karim Rekik, the former PSV youth-team player. Marco Ebben, a convicted drugs kingpin who was shot dead in Mexico this year, was previously reported to have been hiding in the penthouse of former Feyenoord player Terence Kongolo (now at NAC Breda). Guns were found in a house rented by Jetro Willems, then a Groningen player, in the town of Barendrecht in 2023. Willems, formerly of Newcastle United and now at NEC Nijmegen, said he was shocked by the discovery and it is important to make clear he was not treated as a suspect. Nor was Rekik, a former Manchester City player, or Kongolo, who played for Huddersfield Town and Fulham in the Premier League. These stories are alarming, nonetheless, given the reputations of the criminals involved. The police advice is: if you are a footballer moving to a new city or country, rent out your property through a reputable estate agent — not via friends, or friends of friends. 'We once had a footballer who had transferred abroad,' Bob Schagen, another highly experienced Amsterdam detective, told the Het Parool newspaper in 2023. 'He had rented out his house through acquaintances. That house became a criminal hotbed. Someone else lived there who was later shot dead. In the end, that footballer himself was clearing out a cannabis plantation. You can become infected for life through criminal contacts.' In Stam's case, the court in Breda was told he had established himself as one of the 'big boys' of the criminal underworld since retiring from playing in 2016. He was arrested after the police intercepted six months of messages on encrypted phones — a favoured choice of communication for organised criminals — that showed him plotting to smuggle cocaine and MDMA with a street value running into millions of pounds. Advertisement Stam, who was raised in Breda and had two spells at the city's biggest football club, admitted that he had colluded with his accomplices, including his brother, Rudi, to smuggle 20kg of cocaine from Brazil to Germany. The payment, he said, was 'an amount worth one kilo.' But he insisted that was his only involvement. He also alleged that gangland figures had turned up at a PSV youth-team fixture where his eldest son was playing. 'They threatened me on the sidelines at my son's game,' Stam told the court. 'A grenade was thrown at my house.' The reaction can largely be summed up by Ronald Waterreus, the former Netherlands goalkeeper, in a column for De Limburger newspaper, where he expressed 'pure disgust' for Stam and was heavily critical of Promes, too. Promes, Waterreus noted, had described his time in a Dubai prison as 'hell on earth'. Stam also complained about his circumstances, including the impact on his family, and did not turn up for his sentencing because 'those rides in the van from prison to court are hell'. 'Disbelief, sadness, anger,' Waterreus wrote. 'But perhaps most of all: anger. And that is mainly due to the 'victim' role in which these two gentlemen manoeuvre themselves. Wanting to be so tough as to deal in large quantities of drugs, with all the life-threatening consequences for society. Then acting like a whining toddler when you get the punishment that you asked for.' Waterreus urged the courts to impose the 'severest possible' punishment. And that anger is exacerbated because, reputation-wise, these cases are painting a picture of Dutch football that the relevant people see as unwanted and unfair. Levchenko, a former Ukraine international, has lived in the Netherlands since the age of 18 and played for six of their professional teams. Now 47, he is part of regular meetings with the clubs and players, of all ages, warning them not to follow the lead of Stam and all the others. Advertisement 'It's not only the Netherlands,' says Levchenko. 'I have seen something similar in Bulgaria, in Ukraine and Russia. But this is a big, painful story for Dutch football because the whole world is watching the Netherlands. 'We are visiting the clubs, talking to the players, their mothers and their fathers, and what we are finding is that the young generation don't think too much about the future. They just think about the moment: 'OK, if I do this (crime), I can make a lot of money'. 'That is really not wise. We tell them: 'Guys, one wrong move and your career is over. Don't be stupid — don't just think it's easy money. The chance of you being caught is so big'.' Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Sunday World
6 days ago
- Sport
- Sunday World
Ex-Premier League star and FA Cup winner jailed for seven years for drug smuggling plot
"They were only concerned with making large amounts of money' Former Premier League star and FA Cup winner Ronnie Stam has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of drug smuggling. The former Wigan Athletic defender, who won the FA Cup with the Latics in 2013, had plotted to import 700kg worth of cocaine from Chile. Stam, who won the Dutch title with FC Twente with ex-England boss Steve McLaren as manager, had played a 'determining and coordinating role,' a court ruled. He remained in contact with the shipment owner in Dubai with the drugs set to arrive in Rotterdam before being intercepted in Chile. Stam, who was also aided by his brother, must both pay a €30,000 fine and have around €1.7million in criminal proceeds confiscated, according to De Telegraaf. Ronnie Stam News in 90 Seconds - August 13th A judge said: "They were only concerned with making large amounts of money' after Stam and other family members were arrested on June 10 of last year. The prosecution asked for the judge to give Stam a 13-year sentence but he was found not guilty of two of the more serious charges. The former Dutch title-winner was instead convicted of smuggling 724kg of cocaine into the Netherlands in addition to MDMA and possession of laughing gas (nitrous oxide). Stam admitted to being involved in a plot to smuggle 20kg of cocaine to Frankfurt from Brazil. Stam insisted that was the extent of his involvement in the plot and confessed to regretting becoming involved with criminals. The former footballer retired from playing back in 2016 before turning to crime. He will have to repay £1.7m in illegally gained profits as part of his punishment in addition to the seven year prison sentence. Stam was formerly part of the Feyenoord academy before returning to boyhood club NAC Breda in 2002. He later joined FC Twente and won the 2009/10 Eredivisie title. Stam came through Feyenoord's academy before returning to NAC Breda, later winning the Eredivisie with FC Twente under Steve McClaren in 2010. He joined Wigan that summer, making 73 appearances and featuring in their FA Cup run, though not in the final. He went on to play for Standard Liège and NAC Breda before retiring in 2016 due to injuries. Capped once by the Netherlands, Stam made 358 senior appearances, scoring 10 goals and providing 26 assists.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Ronnie Stam: The ex-Premier League defender turned international drug smuggler
He has spent over a year behind the imposing 20-foot-high walls of Middelburg prison, in a part of the Netherlands known as Zeeland (or Sea Land) because of its proximity to the North Sea. It is over an hour's drive to the courthouse in Breda and, put bluntly, Ronnie Stam did not want to be there. 'Those rides in the van from prison to court are hell,' he complained to the judge on his last appearance four months ago. It was, he said, the last time he would attend. Advertisement So the sentencing took place on Tuesday without Stam in the dock and the former Premier League footballer remained in his prison cell, 60 miles away, as he was handed a seven-year prison term for his role in an international drug-smuggling operation. In the Netherlands, defendants can sometimes choose whether they appear in court. Stam, a former Dutch title-winner whose playing career included three years in England with Wigan Athletic, was accused of being part of a criminal enterprise to prepare the smuggling of more than two tonnes (2,217 kilograms) of cocaine with a street value of €41.5million (£48.6m; $65.7m). The judge acquitted him on two of the bigger charges and Stam was sentenced instead for trafficking 724 kilograms of cocaine. He was, in the words of the prosecution, 'not only a big footballer, but also a big player in the drug world', and guilty of: What is it that lures a former footballer, with a 14-year playing career in the Netherlands, England and Belgium, into a world of serious crime? In this case, a mix of desperation and greed, perhaps, and a need for respect, according to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. At an earlier hearing, the prosecution described Stam as being one of the 'big boys' of the Dutch underworld and asked the judge to impose a 13-year sentence. 'A ridiculous demand,' Stam responded. 'Is that because I happened to be good at football?' Stam was on Wigan's books, under the management of Roberto Martinez, during the greatest moment in the club's history, when they beat Manchester City in the 2013 FA Cup final. He missed the final after breaking his leg in Wigan's previous match and, at the time, there was a lot of sympathy for the man who helped Steve McClaren's Twente win the 2009-10 Dutch league title. Since his arrest on June 10 last year, however, a picture has emerged of a man whose life was complicated on several fronts. Stam had gambling issues, the court was told, and had become addicted to nitrous oxide, as well as running up considerable debts and finding his life in danger for owing money to the wrong people. Advertisement Gangland figures had tracked him down, Stam claimed, even when he fled his home city to move to Eindhoven, 40 miles away. They had shot at his property, he said, and turned up at a PSV youth-team fixture where his son was playing. 'They threatened me on the sidelines at my son's game,' Stam told the court. 'And a grenade was thrown at my house.' Nine years since his last professional game, Stam still looked in decent shape when he was transported from his prison cell to appear in court this year. Stam played 73 times for Wigan before moving to Belgian club Standard Liege and later returned to the Netherlands to rejoin NAC Breda, the club where he began his 14-year playing career. He was also called up by the Netherlands for an international against Ukraine in 2010, just a few weeks after the Dutch team of Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and co played Spain in the 2010 World Cup final. Stam had to pull out because of an injury and there were no more invitations to join the national team. Fifteen years on, he had short greying hair where it was once blond, wavy and just about long enough to be held in position with an Alice band. Standing in the dock, wearing jeans and trainers, he could be seen listening intently as the case against him was set out and filling several pages of an A4 book with notes. When it was Stam's turn to address the court, he talked about his children being unable to sleep because they were so upset about the prospect of their father being in prison for a long time. Why, he was asked, could he not remember certain details relating to the drug charges? 'Some things were six years ago,' he explained. 'I've been on the balloons (nitrous oxide) a lot and I don't remember everything exactly. I don't want to say the wrong things.' To begin with, Stam wanted to say as little as possible, explaining it was for his own safety and that of his children. Then, at other times, his lawyer, Michel van Stratum, had to 'grab him by the ears' to stop him saying too much. Either way, Stam started talking only after assurances that it would not be taped and released to the public. 'The moment your voice is recorded, it never leaves the internet,' Van Stratum explained. Satisfied that would not happen, Stam confessed that, yes, he had been involved in a plot to smuggle 20kg of cocaine from Brazil to the German city of Frankfurt. His payment, in Stam's words, was 'an amount worth one kilo'. But that, he insisted, was his sole involvement. 'I am not a major player in the drug world,' said Stam. 'It was stupid to go along with those guys. But I had nothing to do with those big batches of cocaine and nothing to do with setting up (drug-smuggling) lines. That was them, and they kept me out of it.' Advertisement He denied the rest, or insisted that the evidence was flawed, including the group chats that were uncovered by detectives intercepting more than six months' worth of messages on encrypted mobile phones — a favoured style of communication for organised criminals. Those conversations, the court was told, showed the ringleaders discussing drug distribution, foreign exchange rates and cash flow, as well as screenshots of blocks of cocaine and wads of cash, rolled together using elastic bands. Stam's explanation was that it was 'bluff' and 'bravado' on his part and that he was trying to look tough but never had any intention of going through with it. 'Compared to the big boys, I'm at the bottom of the ladder.' That, however, raised one obvious question. If it was all 'nonsense' and 'boastful talk', why use encrypted messages via four accounts? 'That's not how it works in the cut-throat world of drugs,' prosecutor Marcel Kikkert told the court. 'It is not plausible that the suspect is fooling everyone, and everything, all the time.' The truth, according to Kikkert, was that Stam was 'deeply rooted' in criminality and a 'major active player in the cocaine trade'. One of the big boys? Absolutely. 'We are not talking about little boys here. Little boys do not have hundreds of kilos of cocaine ready in South America to ship to the Netherlands.' One of the more troubling issues for Dutch football is that Stam's case comes hot on the heels of Quincy Promes, the former Ajax winger, being convicted of large-scale cocaine trafficking. Promes, capped 50 times for the Netherlands, was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2024 for smuggling 1,363kg of cocaine with a street value estimated at £65m into the country from Belgium. The now-33-year-old, who had been previously sentenced to 18 months for stabbing his cousin, was extradited from Dubai in June and has lodged an appeal against his convictions. The numbers are astronomical and, in Stam's case, the court also made an order that he will have to repay almost €1.7m of illegal profits. It was, Kikkert stated, a 'particularly high amount' but it could have been even higher. 'If we look at the individual amounts discussed in the (encrypted) chats, and the enormous amount of cocaine, this is probably the tip of the iceberg.' Advertisement The court was told that investigators had seized three houses owned by Stam, several bank accounts, €100,000 in cash, six designer watches, jewellery, a Porsche Cayenne, a camper van, a yacht and gym equipment. Nor was this the first time the Stam family — no relation to former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam — had been brought before the courts for alleged wrongdoing. In 2016, Stam's parents were charged with money laundering after a police raid on their house discovered €40,000 in a plastic bag behind the refrigerator. The police also seized a €50,000 BMW X5 that had been paid for in cash. The couple were acquitted after stating they had received the money from their son out of the riches he had earned from football. Then, in March last year, Stam's older brother, Rudi, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for his role, along with six others, in a case involving the large-scale importation of cocaine from South America. Rudi, 43, was also due to face two charges relating to the same drugs plot as his younger brother. But Rudi was not in court on Tuesday to hear the verdict and he was not there for the earlier hearings either: he had fled to Dubai, the court was told, and was on the run. In his absence, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. His lawyer, Joris Kersemaekers, described Rudi in April as having 'chosen his family' rather than risking a prison sentence that the older brother, living as a fugitive, deemed excessive. 'Rudi is not Tony Montana or Pablo Escobar,' the lawyer stated. Nonetheless, it was claimed in court that Rudi had allegedly obtained a house for Ronnie to join him in Dubai. The idea never got off the ground, literally: Ronnie was denied bail and remanded to prison because the Dutch authorities deemed him a flight risk. Police files also indicated the brothers were involved with firearms, the court was told. No case was pursued along those lines but, according to the prosecution, 'that also fits the picture of two seasoned criminals'. A lot has changed, in other words, since Stam was making his reputation as a reliable and solid performer in the Premier League. At Wigan, he is remembered for the most part as quiet, down-to-earth and hardly the type of person who would ever be involved in serious criminality. There was the time, for example, he discovered that Wigan Observer correspondent Paul Kendrick had set up a charity, Joseph's Goal, in the name of his son, who has NKH, a life-limiting genetic disorder. When it was explained to Stam that the charity was aiming to find a cure, he pulled out a fistful of notes — not showy, not obnoxious, just genuinely seeming to care — and handed them over, asking if there was anything more he could do. Advertisement Contrast that with the scene at Breda's Gerechtsgebouw on Tuesday as a judge described Stam's testimony as implausible on several fronts. Stam was acquitted of planning the importation of 893kg of cocaine from Costa Rica in December 2020. Another charge of possessing 600kg of cocaine in February 2021 was also not proven. However, the judge described the Stam brothers as being 'a link in the large-scale international trade in hard drugs'. He added, 'They were only concerned with making large sums of money. There are serious consequences (to this trade) and that's why this deserves a long prison sentence.' Stam had asked the court to take into account the media coverage and its impact on his family, and to be treated more leniently as a result. That, however, was rejected by the judge. The journalistic practice in the Netherlands, for most cases, is not to report a defendant's surname or a photograph of his face (though Promes, being a more high-profile player, was not spared the same way). So Stam's case has been reported in his own country as 'Ronnie S' and the pictures in the newspapers show him in his football kit but with his face blurred out. Everyone, however, knows who it is, following the case via the coverage in BN DeStem, Omroep Brabant and other Dutch media. And the future? 'You won't see Ronnie in court again,' his lawyer told the court. 'He has learned his lesson.' Additional reporting: Evy Buitendijk. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New Straits Times
7 days ago
- New Straits Times
Ex-EPL star Stam jailed for seven years over £48m cocaine haul
KUALA LUMPUR: Once a title winner in the Netherlands and a Premier League regular, Ronnie Stam is now behind bars after being found guilty of drug smuggling on an industrial scale. According to SUN UK, the ex-Wigan Athletic defender, 41, was part of a gang plotting to flood the Netherlands with more than two tonnes of cocaine - a haul with a street value of £48.6million. Prosecutors had demanded 13 years, calling him a "major player" in the Dutch criminal underworld. But a court cleared him of two of the most serious charges and instead handed down a seven-year jail term. Stam was convicted of trafficking 724 kilos of cocaine and MDMA, and for possessing nitrous oxide or "laughing gas". He at first protested his innocence, insisting: "It was stupid to go along with those guys… but I had nothing to do with those big batches of cocaine and nothing to do with setting up lines." But he later admitted helping smuggle 20 kilos of cocaine from Brazil to Frankfurt - a consignment intercepted in Chile before reaching Rotterdam. Police, who had hacked an encrypted messaging service, swooped on six homes and a camper van, arresting Stam's parents, brother and girlfriend. Officers found £85,000 in cash and later ordered the ex-footballer to repay £1.47million in criminal profits. Stam's fall from grace is stark. A Dutch champion with Steve McClaren's FC Twente in 2010, he joined Wigan that summer, making 73 appearances before missing their 2013 FA Cup final triumph over Manchester City with a broken leg.
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Ex-Premier League star given SEVEN-YEAR prison sentence for role in multi-million-pound drug smuggling ring
A former Premier League footballer has been given seven years in prison for his role in a multi-million-pound drug smuggling ring. Ronnie Stam, 41, who played for Wigan for three years from 2010, was described by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service as a big hitter in the criminal underworld. Stam was charged with trying to smuggle £48m-worth of cocaine (2,217 kilos) into the Netherlands. The prosecution asked for the judge to give Stam a 13-year sentence but he was found not guilty of two of the more serious charges. The former Dutch title-winner was instead convicted of smuggling 724kg of cocaine into the Netherlands in addition to MDMA and possession of laughing gas (nitrous oxide). At the courthouse in Breda, it was also alleged that Stam and his accomplices were in possession of 18 litres of nitrous oxide and tried to smuggle 20kg of drugs from South America - saying he laundered £2m. Ronnie Stam (right), pictured playing for Wigan in 2010, has been convicted of drug smuggling Stam (right), pictured here with Eden Hazard (left), said he regretted his involvement Stam admitted to being involved in a plot to smuggle 20kg of cocaine to Frankfurt from Brazil. He revealed that his payment would have been the value of one kilo. Stam insisted that was the extent of his involvement in the plot and confessed to regretting becoming involved with criminals. The former footballer retired from playing back in 2016 before turning to crime. He will have to repay £1.7m in illegally gained profits as part of his punishment in addition to the seven year prison sentence. Stam enjoyed a successful playing career, featuring for Wigan 73 times and winning the Dutch Eredivisie with FC Twente under Steve McLaren before that. After his time in the north of England, he moved to Belgian side Standard Liege before re-joining boyhood club NAC Breda for one season before hanging up his boots.
