Quincy Promes currently plays for Spartak Moscow. Image Offside via Getty Images
According to prosecutors, Promes acted as ‘leader and financier’ of the large-scale drug import and ‘let others do the dirty work’.
In recent weeks, Quincy Promes has again posted plenty of videos on social media in which he shared with his fans his luxurious holiday to Dubai – from Russia, where, as a star player for Spartak Moscow, he remains out of the hands of the Dutch authorities. For example, he boasts of purchasing an enormous glitter-encrusted necklace, thick as a cable and with a shiny pendant attached to it, which would cause back problems for a wearer with a less trained body.
To the disgust of the Amsterdam investigative services, he could not be arrested in Dubai to be extradited to the Netherlands.
‘Deep in the criminal environment’
Promes’ recent sentence of 1.5 years in prison for stabbing a cousin and the serious drugs case in which he is involved do not seem to weigh much on him. As expected, he was missing from the suspect benches of the largest room in the Amsterdam court on Wednesday, where his cousin and co-suspect Marylio V. was the only one who attended the hearing of their cocaine case.
The public prosecutors noted in their indictment that Promes is once again not accountable in his drug case, this time for his suspected involvement in the import of 650 and 712.8 kilos of cocaine into the port of Antwerp at the end of January 2020. “Promes cannot help you in this way.” explain how such a successful footballer can end up so deeply in the criminal environment.” The prosecutors mentioned Promes’ relationship with (supposed) serious criminals such as Piet Wortel, gangster rapper Joey AK (Joël H.) and Ocean S.
Chats in which he talks about ‘sweeping someone to death’, blowing up a house or apparently looking for a firearm also confirm to the prosecutors how deep Promes is in the crime.
‘Business more lucrative than football’
In an overheard conversation, the football millionaire is asked how he earns more, football or (drug) business? “Doing business,” he answers without hesitation, and then explains how he earns the same every month for football, but that in the drug trade you can earn a lot in just a few days. A prosecutor: “Apparently the money came in to Promes in droves, he even needed a counting machine for it.”
The drug case revolves around two loads of cocaine that were hidden between bags of salt in containers on the ship Cap San Nicolas, which entered the port of Antwerp from Brazil on January 29, 2020 and moored at kaai (quay) 869.
According to the justice department, one container was stolen from the port of Antwerp and smuggled off the site, after which 650 kilos of cocaine were removed from the cargo in a warehouse. The container was then returned to the port. The second container was intercepted in time by customs, who found 712.8 kilos of cocaine inside.
According to prosecutors, Promes and his cousin Marylio V. controlled the import and removal of the cocaine via remote chat groups. They also interfered with the finances. In the messages, Promes talks about ‘his boys’ who are on their way from Amsterdam to Antwerp. According to the officers, his cousin directs the extractors to an Antwerp hookah café, so that they can wait there for the signal that they can unpack the drugs.
‘Promes invested 75k’
According to the prosecutor, according to his reports, Promes invested ’75k’ (75,000 euros) in the blocks of cocaine, always stamped with a tiger, which would be resold for 29,000 euros per kilo.
When a co-suspect emails in the afternoon of January 30, 2020 that ‘a bin is lost’ (a container), the account that the justice department links to Promes responds with the message that he hopes the bin will still be found. At 5 p.m. the message comes that people fear that nothing more will happen. According to the justice department, Promes responds with ‘shit man’. Cousin Marylio V., the next day: ‘so half is save and risk of the trade’. After the successful part of the transport, Promes and his cousin complimented their ‘soldiers’ and promised them promotion.
Prosecutors see confirmation that Promes was closely involved in the import of the two shipments of cocaine by a message he sent on February 25, apparently in the run-up to new drug trafficking: ‘I will let you know immediately, my previous delivery was a semi-failure, they came in 2 containers, one fell and one got stuck, so my entire profit was halved.
Cousin just released after 4 years in prison
Before his arrest in April 2023, cousin Marylio V. had only just been released after a 4-year prison sentence that he was sentenced to in Belgium in 2020 for the import of 882 kilos of cocaine in May 2019. 93 days of that sentence were still outstanding, which he has already served.
Marylio V. said on Wednesday morning that he only arranged two importers for contacts, but that he did not interfere with the import and that he did not earn anything from it. The prosecutors ‘drew wrong conclusions’ from the chats, because he certainly did not play a ‘leading role’.
‘Complete acquittal for Promes’
Quincy Promes is expected in Russia by football club Spartak Moscow ‘literally seven days a week’ and is therefore not coming to the Netherlands for his criminal case, say his lawyers Sophie Hof and Robert Malewicz.
They want full acquittal. “The Public Prosecution Service (OM) argues with many strong words that Promes had a directing, even leading role in the import of those two shipments of cocaine, but cannot prove this,” Hof said. The top footballer ‘cannot be linked’ to the Sky account with the nickname Fantasma, which participated in the chat group about the import of the two offending ‘containers’ of cocaine.
“Fantasma also does not pass on any relevant information. Looking at the chats, it seems the intention was for him to be some kind of guarantor. Maybe it’s big talk. There is no evidence that an investment of 75,000 euros was made,” Hof argued. “Fantasma gives no instructions or commands, nothing. He seems to be chatting along a bit and mostly utters loose and empty words. If 75,000 euros had been invested, according to the chats we would be talking about ten blocks (of one kilo).”
If the second container appears to be seized, Fantasma ‘does not give any response’. In addition to the messages, according to the counselors, there is no evidence, such as observations, technical material or other supporting evidence.
Quincy Promes’ cousin wants to ‘partially confess’ to a role in cocaine trafficking, but not to talk about top footballer
Marylio V., cousin of Promes, wants to ‘partially confess’ his role in the import of consignments of 650 and 712.8 kilos of cocaine into the port of Antwerp in January 2020. He will only speak about himself. “I have nothing to explain about Quincy Promes,” V. said in October.
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