A former Arsenal player jailed over a £600k drug smuggling plot has spoken out for the first time after being released.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, 34, arranged for his girlfriend and another friend to bring suitcases with what the women thought was gold into the UK from Thailand.
But the luggage was filled with 132lb of cannabis which was found when they were stopped and searched at Stansted Airport, leading to Emmanuel-Thomas’ arrest.
Within days of being charged, he was sacked by Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton and was jailed for four years in June.
However, he has now been released on parole after his time on remand was taken into account.
Posting on his Instagram, Emmanuel-Thomas apologised to Greenock Morton, the club he was playing for when arrested.
The striker, who also played for Bristol City and Ipswich Town, said: ‘Apologies to all affiliated with Greenock Morton.
‘I let you guys down big time, hopefully you can forgive me. If the chance comes along I will right my wrongs but that will be up to the club, if it does not I wish you all the best and thank you.’
He also posted a video of himself driving a Tesla, getting his hair braided and training on a football pitch – seemingly in London.
Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested after a drugs haul was found at London Stansted Airport, Essex, on September 2.
His girlfriend, 33-year-old Yasmin Piotrowska, and her friend, Rosie Rowland, 29, had been recruited to travel to Thailand and smuggle the cannabis back.
After landing in London on a flight from Bangkok, the pair were stopped and their suitcases searched – with officers finding a total of 60kg of cannabis in their four suitcases.
Piotrowska, of Kensal Green, London, and Rowland, of Chelmsford, Essex, were also charged with smuggling cannabis.
However, the women said they believed they were transporting gold, and they were acquitted.
It is believed Emmanuel-Thomas, of Gourock, near Glasgow, was the intermediary between suppliers in Thailand and drug pushers in the UK.
The investigation revealed that with Emmanuel-Thomas’ encouragement, the women had made a near identical trip – all expenses paid and a promised payment of £2,500 – a few months earlier in July.
On his way to custody after being arrested, he said unprompted: ‘I just feel sorry for the girls.’
Emmaneul-Thomas was once a prodigy at Arsenal, and tipped for the top.
But he slid down the footballing pyramid and was tempted into crime during ‘significant financial hard times’ when out of contract, his barrister said during sentencing.
Emmanuel-Thomas was 19 when he made his Premier League debut aged 19 for Arsenal against Chelsea, shortly after captaining its youth team to the FA Youth Cup.
The technically gifted, agile striker was lauded by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for his ‘outstanding quality’, who predicted he would ‘not only be a good player but a great player’.
‘It is down to how far he wants to go because he has big potential,’ the Frenchman added.
Despite his promising start, Emmanuel-Thomas struggled to stay in the Arsenal first team.
He went on loan to Ipswich Town and then Bristol City, where he scored 24 goals in 82 appearances, before a spell at QPR.
In 2019, he accepted a transfer to PTT Rayong, an obscure Thai team based just south of the capital, Bangkok.
Thailand had become the first East Asian country to decriminalise cannabis just a year earlier, a decision that has led to a booming industry of commercial and cottage growers.
Emmanuel-Thomas is believed to have acquired contacts in the country’s weed industry during his short spell at PTT Rayong, which folded the year he joined.
Despite continuing his professional career with an Indian team and several Scottish clubs, including Aberdeen, the footballer pursued the drug smuggling business on the side – with disastrous consequences.
