Thailand: PonteSud – News Desk
A professional footballer who imported £600,000 worth of cannabis from Thailand to the UK has been jailed for four years.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, 34, orchestrated the smuggling of a 60kg (132lb) drugs haul that was found at London Stansted Airport, Essex, on 2 September.
He was sacked by Scottish club Greenock Morton after being arrested, having previously played for Arsenal, Aberdeen and England at youth level.
“It is through your own actions you will no longer be known as a professional footballer; you will be known as a criminal,” Judge Alexander Mills told him at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Border Force officers at the airport found vacuum-packed cannabis stored across four suitcases they transported from Bangkok to Essex.
Mobile phone analysis linked Emmanuel-Thomas to the discovery, with him texting Miss Piotrowska to “delete everything from our chat if you can” when she was stopped and searched.
He then travelled to Stratford, east London, on 5 September and replaced his own mobile phone, prosecutor David Josse KC said.
Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested at his home in Cardwell Road, in Gourock near Glasgow, Scotland, on 18 September.
Mr Josse said he used his “influence as a professional footballer” to trick the women, also offering them an all expenses paid trip to Thailand and £2,500 in cash.
Charges against Ms Piotrowska and Ms Rowland were dropped after it emerged they thought they were transporting gold, a previous hearing was told.
But Emmanuel-Thomas was to be paid £5,000 by an unknown person for a successful operation, said Mr Josse.
