Former Arsenal forward pleads guilty in UK to cannabis smuggling charge
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 21, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026

Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 21, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026

Ex-Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas pleads guilty to smuggling 60 kg of cannabis into the UK. His sentencing is pending.
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Arsenal and Ipswich Town forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the smuggling of 60 kg of cannabis into Stansted Airport, Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old, who was released by Scottish second division club Greenock Morton after being charged last year, entered his plea at Chelmsford Crown Court.
The NCA said Emmanuel-Thomas had recruited his girlfriend and another woman to travel to Thailand, where Emmanuel-Thomas briefly played in 2019, to collect the cannabis and smuggle it to Britain.
The two women were also charged with smuggling cannabis but the prosecution offered no evidence against them and the charges were dropped on Wednesday, the NCA added.
Emmanuel-Thomas will be sentenced at a later date.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, editing by Ed Osmond)
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty to orchestrating the smuggling of 60 kg of cannabis into Stansted Airport.
The two women recruited by Emmanuel-Thomas were also charged with smuggling cannabis, but the prosecution dropped the charges against them.
Emmanuel-Thomas recruited his girlfriend and another woman to travel to Thailand to collect the cannabis before smuggling it to Britain.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will be sentenced at a later date following his guilty plea.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas played for Arsenal and Ipswich Town, and was released by Greenock Morton after being charged.
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