Footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has pleaded guilty to a cannabis importation charge after attempting to smuggle £600,000 of the drug through Stansted Airport from Thailand.

The 34-year-old striker was fired by Scottish Championship club Greenock Morton following his arrest last year.

The former Livingston, Aberdeen, and Arsenal academy product changed his plea to guilty at a hearing on May 7, which can now be reported because reporting restrictions were lifted on Wednesday.

Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex to fraudulently evading the prohibition on cannabis importation between July 1 and September 2, 2024.

He previously denied the charges when asked to enter a plea in October of last year.

The footballer, who has previously played for Ipswich Town, Bristol City, Queens Park Rangers, and Thai club PTT Rayong, was remanded in custody until his sentencing date, which has yet to be determined.

In September 2024, officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Emmanuel-Thomas on Cardwell Road in Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland.

On September 2, the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 in class B drugs being smuggled through Stansted.

Border Force officers discovered approximately 60kg (132lb) of the drug in two suitcases that had arrived via flight from Bangkok, Thailand.

Co-defendants Rosie Rowland and Yasmin Piotrowska, who both denied the charge, will face no further action because prosecutors provided no evidence in their case.

David Josse KC, the prosecution’s attorney, stated “at all material times they maintained both before the events that led to the importation and after the events they said they thought they were importing gold not cannabis” .

Judge Christopher Morgan directed that Rowland and Piotrowska’s not guilty verdicts be recorded, and they were released from the dock.

Rowland, 29, of Southend Road, Chelmsford, Essex, and Piotrowska, 33, of Purves Road, Kensal Rise, north-west London, wept as they left the dock.

Emmanuel-Thomas appeared at Wednesday’s hearing via video link from Chelmsford Prison.

He was asked whether he wanted to appear at his sentencing in person or via video-link, and he requested that it be in person, with the date set administratively.

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