Former soccer player Jay Emmanuel Thomas was sentenced June 5 to four years in prison after for participating in a £600,000 ($812,402.68) cannabis smuggling operation in September 2024, according to the National Crime Agency.
Thomas, 34, admitted to plotting to smuggle the drugs from Thailand into the UK when he recruited two women to haul the drugs into the country. On Sept. 2, Border Force officers at Stansted Airport stopped Thomas’s girlfriend, Yasmin Piotrowska, and her friend, Rosie Rowland, after they arrived on a flight from Bangkok.
Both women were carrying two suitcases each. When the luggage was searched, a total of 60 kg (132.277 pounds) of cannabis, which was split between each suitcase, 15 kg (33.0693 pounds) in each bag, was found. Piotrowska, of Kensal Green, London, and Rowland, of Chelmsford, Essex, were both charged with smuggling cannabis.
“We urge anyone asked to bring something into the UK that they’re unsure of to say no simply. Organized criminals like Thomas are invariably very persuasive, offering couriers promises of payments and other enticements. But the risk of getting caught is very high and it simply isn’t worth the risk,” David Philips, NCA senior investigating officer, said in a written statement.
After an investigation, the Crown (an integral part of the institution of Parliament) dropped the charges against both women, who claimed they were told that they were transporting gold.
Thomas was believed to be the connection between suppliers in Thailand and drug pushers in the UK. An investigation revealed Thomas gave the women an all-expenses-paid trip with a promised payment of £2,500 ($3,389.03) in July 2024 for a similar outing. He was arrested on Sept. 18, 2024.
Thomas played for Queens Park Rangers, Ipswich Town, and PTT Rayong in Thailand in 2019. He had signed with Greenock Morton FC in Scotland before his arrest.
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