The judge has sentenced Quincy Promes to six years in prison for his involvement in drug smuggling. The court in Amsterdam announced this on Wednesday, reports ANP news agency. Promes was accused of involvement in large-scale smuggling of cocaine through the port of Antwerp. The Public Prosecution Service recently demanded nine years in prison against the former Ajax player, who has been living in Russia since 2021.
The cocaine smuggling took place at the end of January 2020 via a container ship that moored in the port of Antwerp. Extractors managed to transfer a batch of 650 kilos of cocaine to a warehouse near the port. Another batch, weighing 712 kilos, was intercepted by customs. The drugs were hidden in a shipment of sea salt from Brazil. The evidence against Promes mainly consisted of intercepted crypto messages. According to the Public Prosecution Service, this showed that the footballer was intensively involved in smuggling.
Promes has been playing for Spartak Moscow since 2021 and did not return to the Netherlands for this trial, despite attempts by the Public Prosecution Service to transfer him for the trial. Last year he was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for a stabbing at a party in Abcoude. He did not come to the Netherlands for this either and is avoiding punishment for the time being.
Co-suspect Marylio V., a relative of Promes, was sentenced to six years in prison. He would have been the footballer’s right-hand man. Together with him, Promes had a “crucial, directing and coordinating role” in the smuggling, the Public Prosecution Service said.