Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas jailed for four years for role in plot to smuggle £600,000 of cannabis

Professional footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been jailed for four years after admitting being involved in a £600,000 drug smuggling scheme after 60kg of cannabis was seized at Stansted Airport.

The former Aberdeen striker was sacked by Greenock Morton after being detained and questioned by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers.

The 33-year-old was arrested in Gourock, Inverclyde, in September 2024 in an operation supported by officers from Police Scotland.

He was taken across the border to Carlisle to be questioned and later charged.

Border Force officers detected around 60 kilos of the drug in two suitcases which had arrived on a flight from Bangkok. NCA

His arrest came after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of the class B drug as it was being smuggled through Stansted on September 2 by two woman he had recruited.

Border Force officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand via Dubai.

Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis between July 1, 2024 and September 2, 2024.

He had previously denied the charges when asked to enter a plea in October last year, but changed his plea to guilty at a hearing on May 7.

On Thursday, Emmanuel-Thomas was jailed for four years at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Prosecutor David Josse KC told the court the “interception” of the two women – Emmanuel-Thomas’s girlfriend Yasmin Piotrowska and her friend Rosie Rowland – happened at the airport.

He said it “became apparent this defendant, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, had been involved in their recruitment to travel to Thailand”.

He noted Emmanuel-Thomas “had played a few games, 11 in total, for a club in Thailand”.

The barrister said Emmanuel-Thomas had “some awareness and understanding of the scale of the operation” and was acting in an “operational management function” in the plot.

He pointed out the defendant’s “relationship with Ms Piotrowska” when describing the recruitment of the two women.

Ms Piotrowska sat in the public gallery and wept for much of the hearing.

Alex Rose, for Emmanuel-Thomas, said: “The financial gain in this case for Mr Emmanuel-Thomas was £5,000.”

Mr Rose said the defendant was a father-of-two and had made a “catastrophic error of judgment”.

He said a “period of being out of contract led to very significant financial hard times” and he “succumbed to temptation”.

“Although he had previously experienced periods of being in between contracts or – putting it another way – being unemployed as a footballer, they had largely been on the back of fairly lucrative long-term contracts,” said Mr Rose.

He said the “situation was rather different in the background to this”.

“Having been out of contract prior to signing for Greenock Morton, he had a brief contract with Kidderminster Harriers but that was very much a short-term contract, almost to try to assist someone he had a good relationship with,” he said.

Mr Rose continued: “His football career is finished and that’s something he has brought entirely on himself.

“It’s a devastating blow for somebody who had such promise and such an impressive football career.”

Judge Alexander Mills, jailing Emmanuel-Thomas for four years, said: “It’s through your own action that you will no longer be known for playing professional football.

“You will be known as a criminal. A professional footballer who threw it all away.”

The judge said Emmanuel-Thomas had played five games for Greenock Morton and was on a £600-per-week contract at the time of the incident.

He said the defendant “recruited” his girlfriend and her friend and was “essentially turning the importation of cannabis into an all-expenses paid holiday in the Far East”, arranging business class flights, hotel costs and discussing in messages how to maximise their time on the Thai island of Ko Samui.

Emmanuel-Thomas looked straight ahead as the judge read out his sentence.

He nodded towards the public gallery as he was led to the cells.

Ms Piotrowska, 33, of north-west London, and Ms Rowland, of Essex, denied the charge and at an earlier hearing prosecutors offered no evidence in their case.

Mr Josse said at an earlier hearing that the women “said they thought they were importing gold not cannabis”, and the judge directed that not guilty verdicts be recorded for them.

David Philips, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “We urge anyone asked to bring something into the UK that they’re unsure of to simply say no.

“Organised criminals like Thomas are invariably very persuasive with promises of payments and other enticements to couriers. But the risk of getting caught is very high and it simply isn’t worth the risk.

“Crime groups make significant profits by trafficking and selling perceived high-quality cannabis legally grown in the US, Canada and Thailand illegally in the UK.”