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Dutch footballer Quincy Promes has reportedly been extradited back to the Netherlands to serve a seven-and-a-half year sentence for drug trafficking and aggravated assault.
Promes has been playing his football in Dubai but was seized by the authorities after a request by the Dutch police.
The former Ajax and Netherlands star, 33, was hit with a six-year jail sentence in February 2024 after being convicted of helping to smuggle cocaine into his homeland from Belgium in 2020.
That followed an 18-month sentence for stabbing his cousin, but he has been absent from the Netherlands and therefore not served any time.
Dutch outlet De Telegraaf reports that Promes begins his sentence in a detention centre after being flown back in a chartered plane.
His plane cost almost £86,000 to the taxpayer after it was demeed there were ‘safety risks’ in putting him on a public flight.
Premier League giants such as Liverpool and Arsenal were linked years ago with a move for Promes, who has won trophies in the Netherlands and Russia and earned 50 caps for his country.
The earliest Promes will be released is in 2030 if his sentences are upheld wth parole, reports De Telegraaf.
The Amsterdam court ruled last year that Promes had been directly involved in smuggling 1,360 kilograms of cocaine to the Netherlands or Belgium in two shipments in 2020.
Promes denied the charges but the court found there was enough evidence from two eyewitnesses and intercepted phone conversations to hand down a prison term.
Meanwhile, in the incident with his brother, the stabbing to the leg occurred at a family party at a warehouse in Abcoude after Promes got into an argument over a stolen necklace.
He was playing in the Netherlands for Ajax at the time but moved to Spartak in February 2021.
The judge criticised Promes, who is currently in Russia, for not coming to the court to defend himself or expressing any remorse.
His sentence would have been six months less had he done so.
The Dutch authorities have not been able to lock him up due to the fact he has been playing in Russia and Dubai until now.
The Amsterdam-born forward played 50 times for the Dutch national team, scoring seven goals.
Starting his career at Twente, he had a four-year stint with Spartak between 2014 and 2018 before signing for Spanish club Sevilla.
From there, he spent a season-and-a-half with Ajax before returning to Spartak. He has scored 37 goals in 74 games for the club during his second spell.
He joined second-tier Dubai United for last season and scored 19 goals in 20 appearances.
