Shillong, May 26: A former Indian Super League player, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, has pleaded guilty of attempting to smuggle in £6 lakh (nearly Rs 7 crore at today’s exchange rate) worth of cannabis into the United Kingdom.
The forward, a British citizen, made 17 appearances for Jamshedpur FC in 2022-23, scoring two goals during his time in India. His criminal conviction has nothing to do with his stint at Jamshedpur.
However, according to a BBC report, Jay developed contacts in the drug world following a period at a club based in Thailand in 2019.
After leaving Jamshedpur after just one season he returned to the UK and it was there that he arrested last year after authorities seized the large shipment of cannabis from two women reentering the country following a trip to Thailand, one of whom was Jay’s girlfriend. He will be sentenced at a later date.
A former Arsenal youth player, Jay was praised by Arsene Wenger as a bright young talent but he wasn’t able to deliver on that potential as a senior player and only made one brief appearance in the Premier League for the Gunners.
(Jamshedpur FC file photo)