drugs
The court in Amsterdam has sentenced footballer Quincy Promes to six years in prison for his involvement in the large-scale smuggling of cocaine through the port of Antwerp. That happens in absentia, Promes 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 and demanded nine years in prison.
The 32-year-old Promes has been playing for Spartak Moscow since 2021 and has not returned to the Netherlands for this trial, despite attempts by the Public Prosecution Service to bring him over for the trial. Last year he was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for a stabbing at a party. He did not come to the Netherlands for this either and is avoiding punishment for the time being.
A family member of Promes also received a six-year prison sentence. 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.
