Jay Emmanuel-Thomas: From Arsenal prodigy to medication smuggler

As a footballer, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas appeared destined for greatness. But a drug-smuggling conviction has left his profession and popularity in tatters. How did issues resolve so dramatically for a participant as soon as tipped for the highest?

Hailed by means of mythical Arsenal supervisor Arsene Wenger as a footballer who may just “play anywhere”, Emmanuel-Thomas used to be marked out early on as having elite possible.

Imposing, technically talented and unusually agile, the striker perceived to have the sector at his toes.

But a profession that promised such a lot at Arsenal faltered and noticed him spend years flitting between the second one and 3rd tiers of English soccer.

In 2020 he moved to play in Scotland and used to be nonetheless plying his industry north of the border when, on 18 September, he used to be arrested at his house in Gourock, close to Glasgow.

Sixteen days previous, Border Force officials had stopped two ladies at London Stansted Airport and located medication of their circumstances.

It used to be no longer a minor haul; they had been gazing hashish with a side road price of £600,000.

How did it get there? The proof quickly led detectives to Emmanuel-Thomas.

Wind again a decade and a part, and issues had been very other.

It is 26 May 2009, and Arsenal’s newest batch of academy skills can slightly comprise their pleasure.

The younger potentialities, together with Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin, have simply gained the FA Youth Cup.

One participant specifically has stood out: their 16-year-old captain, Emmanuel-Thomas, who has scored in each spherical of the contest.

“These young men have a very bright future indeed,” remarked one commentator.

But regardless of occurring to make 5 first-team appearances, it used to be no longer relatively to be for Emmanuel-Thomas.

He used to be shipped out on a number of loans prior to leaving the north London membership for Ipswich Town.

It used to be a transfer that excited supporters in Suffolk, who had been willing to look what the previous Arsenal starlet may just produce.

However, 71 video games and 8 objectives later, Emmanuel-Thomas had no longer relatively made the mark lovers was hoping for, and he moved to Bristol City in a participant trade deal.

Here, he helped the Robins safe promotion to the Championship and turned into one thing of a cult hero, scoring 21 objectives in his first season.

A transfer to Queens Park Rangers adopted, with next mortgage spells at MK Dons and Gillingham.

But in 2019, Emmanuel-Thomas approved a switch to a Thai-based workforce that will adjust the process his existence.

It is thought he used to be tempted into the rustic’s medication underworld whilst enjoying for PTT Rayong, a membership that folded in the similar yr.

Despite later strikes to an Indian aspect and a number of other Scottish outfits, together with Aberdeen, Emmanuel-Thomas by no means shook off the prison connections he made.

By the time he took a six-month contract at Greenock Morton, a 40-minute force from Glasgow, the sport used to be virtually up.

As he covered up for them towards Queens Park on 14 September, he would have certainly recognized the regulation used to be about to meet up with him.

The ladies arrested at Stansted had been his 33-year-old female friend, Yasmin Piotrowska, and her pal Rosie Rowland, 28.

Emmanuel Thomas, by means of then 33, gave the impression in courtroom charged with orchestrating the tried importation of gear, and used to be sacked by means of his membership.

Detectives came upon he had duped Ms Piotrowska, from north-west London, and Ms Rowland, from Chelmsford, into travelling to Thailand with the promise of £2,500 in money and an all-expenses-paid shuttle.

Their task? To convey house two suitcases each and every, full of what they had been confident used to be gold, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

They flew trade magnificence from Bangkok, touchdown in Essex by the use of Dubai.

Unknown to them, they had been smuggling in hashish with a side road price of £600,000, vacuum-packed throughout the 4 circumstances.

The pair had been stopped and arrested by means of Border Force officials, prior to being charged with drug importation offences.

With the pair in custody, and Emmanuel-Thomas later remanded, police probed how the medicine made it to the United Kingdom.

They quickly discovered the participant used to be the middleman between providers in Thailand and sellers in the United Kingdom, in line with the National Crime Agency (NCA).

With the footballer’s encouragement, the ladies had additionally made a near-identical shuttle in July, having been made equivalent guarantees of money and a lavish vacation.

On his strategy to custody, Emmanuel-Thomas even informed NCA officials: “I just feel sorry for the girls.”

His first courtroom listening to in September used to be informed he performed “extensive research” into flights and instructions, together with which airports the ladies have been going to.

David Philips, a senior NCA investigator, stated “organised criminals like Emmanuel-Thomas” used persuasion and cost to get other folks to do their grimy paintings.

“But the risk of getting caught is very high and it simply isn’t worth it,” he added.

During a number of courtroom appearances, Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road, Gourock, strenuously denied making an attempt to import hashish.

However, he modified his plea to accountable at the beginning of May and restrictions on reporting this had been lifted on Wednesday.

Charges towards each Ms Piotrowska and Ms Rowland had been dropped after the prosecution published they’d been tricked by means of Emmanuel-Thomas.

It adopted what David Josse KC described as a “very thorough investigation”.

Emmanuel-Thomas gave the impression by the use of video hyperlink from HMP Chelmsford at his newest courtroom listening to.

When he returns to courtroom for sentencing, on a date nonetheless to be showed, it is going to no longer be his first time within the highlight.

But it is going to be for terribly other causes to the day he lifted that trophy aloft in 2009.