A former Arsenal academy player, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, has been hit with a four-year jail term in the United Kingdom on Thursday over his involvement with two women – including his girlfriend – in a drug smuggling deal worth £600,000.
Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested after National Crime Agency officers seized cannabis being transported through Stansted by two women he had recruited, An earlier hearing at Chelmsford crown court in Essex was told the women believed they were importing gold.
However, Border Force officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived in the UK from Bangkok via Dubai, leading to the 34-year-old’s arrest in September 2024. He would then be sacked by Scottish side, Greenock Morton, following the arrest.
David Josse KC, prosecuting, told the court the “interception” of the two women – Emmanuel-Thomas’s girlfriend, Yasmin Piotrowska, and her friend, Rosie Rowland – happened at the airport. Piotrowska sat in the public gallery and wept for much of the hearing on Thursday.
Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis between 1 July 2024 and 2 September 2024. He was spotted on Thursday wearing a grey suit jacket and black shirt as he listened to proceedings from the secure dock.
“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,” Alex Rose said in defence of Emmanuel-Thomas, who also played for Ipswich Town, QPR, Bristol CIty and Aberdeen.
The presiding judge 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.”