Overview

• Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty on May 7 to fraudulent evasion of cannabis importation and received a four-year prison sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court
• Border Force officers intercepted two suitcases containing about 60kg of cannabis arriving from Bangkok on September 2, 2024, valued at roughly £600,000
• The former Arsenal academy player recruited his girlfriend and a friend under the pretense of transporting gold, booking business-class travel and offering each £2,500 plus expenses
• Prosecutors dropped charges against Yasmin Piotrowska and Rosie Rowland after offering no evidence, clearing the two women of wrongdoing
• Judge Alexander Mills described Emmanuel-Thomas’s fall from professional football to criminality and ordered he serve 40% of his term in custody before release on licence