Ex-aberdeen player admits plot to smuggle £600k worth of cannabis

THE 34-YEAR-OLD STRIKER WAS SACKED BY SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP SIDE GREENOCK MORTON AFTER HIS ARREST LAST YEAR. SAM RUSSELL 15:07, 21 May 2025 Former Aberdeen player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has

pleaded guilty to a cannabis importation charge over an attempt to smuggle £600,000 of the drug through Stansted Airport from Thailand. The 34-year-old striker was sacked by Scottish

Championship side Greenock Morton after his arrest last year. The former Livingston, Aberdeen and Arsenal academy product changed his plea to guilty at a hearing on May 7 and this can now be

reported after reporting restrictions were lifted on Wednesday. Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation

of cannabis between July 1 2024 and September 2 2024. He had previously denied the charges when asked to enter a plea in October last year. The footballer, who has also played for Ipswich

Town, Bristol City, Queens Park Rangers and Thai side PTT Rayong, was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing on a date to be fixed. JOIN THE DAILY RECORD WHATSAPP COMMUNITY! Get the

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choose 'exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland, was arrested in the town by National

Crime Agency (NCA) officers in September 2024. His arrest came after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of the class B drug as it was being smuggled through Stansted on September 2. Border

Force officers detected roughly 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases, which had arrived via a flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Co-defendants Rosie Rowland and Yasmin Piotrowska, who both

denied the charge, face no further action after prosecutors offered no evidence in their case. Prosecutor David Josse KC said that "at all material times they maintained both before

the events that led to the importation and after the events they said they thought they were importing gold not cannabis". Judge Christopher Morgan directed that not guilty verdicts be

recorded in the case of Rowland and Piotrowska and they walked free from the dock. Rowland, 29, of Southend Road, Chelmsford, Essex, and 33-year-old Piotrowska, of Purves Road, Kensal Rise,

north-west London, wept after leaving the dock. Emmanuel-Thomas appeared at Wednesday's hearing by video-link from Chelmsford Prison. Article continues below He was asked if he would

like to appear at his sentencing in person or by video-link and he asked that it be in person, with the date for this hearing to be set administratively. _DON'T MISS THE LATEST NEWS

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