From Arsenal Wunderkind to drug smugglers

As a footballer, Jay seemed to be intended for size. But a drug conviction has left his career and reputation in rubble. How did things dissolve so dramatically for a player who was once tilted for the tip?

Emmanuel-Thomas was celebrated as a footballer by the legendary Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger and was equipped early as an elite potential.

The striker imposing, technically gifted and surprisingly agile and seemed to have the world at his feet.

But a career that Arsenal promised so much, stalled and he was able to spend years between the second and third stages of English football.

In 2020 he moved to Scotland to play in Scotland and was still chasing his trade north of the border when he was arrested in his house in Gourock near Glasgow on September 18.

Sixteen days earlier, the border tiefs had stopped two women at London Stansted Airport and found drugs in their cases.

It wasn’t a little train; They stared at cannabis with a street value of £ 600,000.

How did it get there? The detectives soon led the evidence to Emmanuel-Thomas.

Winden for a decade and a half and things were very different.

It is May 26, 2009 and Arsenal’s latest group of Akademie talents can hardly contain their excitement.

The young prospects, including Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin, have just won the FA Youth Cup.

One player in particular noticed: her 16-year-old captain Emmanuel-Thomas, who achieved in every round of the competition.

“In fact, these young men have a very shiny future” A commentator.

But even though it was five teams, it was not quite for Emmanuel-Thomas.

He was delivered to several loans before leaving the North London Club for Ipswich Town.

It was a step that the excited pendant in Suffolk, who absolutely wanted to see what the former Arsenal -Starlet could produce.

71 games and eight goals later, Emmanuel-Thomas had not quite made the Mark fans to go to a player exchange contract according to Bristol City.

Here he helped the Robins to secure the promotion of the championship, and became a cult hero who scored 21 goals in his first season.

This was followed by a move to Queens Park Rangers with subsequent loan magic at MK Dons and Gillingham.

In 2019, Emmanuel-Thomas accepted a transfer to a Thai team that would change the course of his life.

It is assumed that it was associated with the country’s drug underworld while playing for PTT Rayong, a club that was folded in the same year.

Despite later trains to an Indian side and several Scottish outfits, including Aberdeen, Emmanuel-Thomas never shook the criminal connections he made.

When he accepted a six-month contract in Greenock Morton, a 40-minute drive from Glasgow, the game had almost expired.

As he against you against Queens Park for you On September 14, he would have known that the law would catch up with it.

The women arrested in Stansted were his 33-year-old friend Yasmin Piotrowska and her friend Rosie Rowland, 28.

Emmanuel Thomas appeared in court for up to 33 years because he had attempted the attempted import of drugs and was released by his club.

Detective discovered that he had cheated on Mrs. Piotrowska from Northwest-London and Ms. Rowland from Chelmsford to Thailand with the promise of £ 2,500 in cash and an all-round-expenses trip.

Your job? In order to bring two suitcases home, Chelmsford Crown Court heard what was insured for them.

They flew from Bangkok and landed in Essex about Dubai.

Unknown to them, they smuggled in cannabis with a street value of £ 600,000, vacuum -packed in the four cases.

The couple was stopped and arrested by border officials before they were charged with drug import statements.

After the couple had later taken custody and Emmanuel-Thomas in custody, the police examined how the drugs made it to Great Britain.

They soon found that, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the player was the intermediary between suppliers in Thailand and dealers in the UK.

With the encouragement of the footballer, the women also made an almost identical trip in July after making similar money promises and a wasteful vacation.

On the way to custody, Emmanuel-Thomas even told the NCA officials: “I’m just sorry for the girls.”

Be First court hearing in September It was said that he had carried out “extensive research” in flights and directions, including the airports that the women had went to.

David Philips, a high-ranking NCA investigator, said “Organized criminals such as Emmanuel-Thomas” used persuasion and payment payment to get people to do their dirty work.

“But the risk of being caught is very high and it is simply not worth it,” he added.

During several court appearances, Emmanuel-Thomas von Cardwell Road, Gourock, refused to try to import cannabis.

However, he was guilty of his plea at the beginning of May and the restrictions on reporting about it Abolished on Wednesday.

The indictment against Ms. Piotrowska and Ms. Rowland was falling after the public prosecutor unveiled that they had been cheated by Emmanuel-Thomas.

This was followed by what David Josse Kc described as a “very thorough investigation”.

Emmanuel-Thomas appeared in his latest court hearing by video link from HMP Chelmsford.

If he returns to court to convict, it will not be in the spotlight for the first time when it still has to be confirmed.

But it will be for very different reasons on which he lifted this trophy in 2009.