THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Former Ajax and Netherlands footballer Quincy Promes, sentenced to six years in prison, has been arrested in Dubai at the request of Dutch prosecutors seeking his extradition.
He was convicted last month of involvement in cocaine smuggling and sentenced to six years in prison.
The 32-year-old is the subject of an international arrest warrant. According to media reports, he had been under house arrest since early March in a luxury hotel in Dubai.
The former footballer was also arrested almost two weeks back in the same city for a “local offence” and not because of the Dutch case.
This time he was taken into custody upon a request issued to law-enforcement agencies worldwide. He “has been taken into custody thanks to the efforts of the authorities” in the Netherlands and the UAE, prosecutors said Wednesday. Promes now plays for Spartak Moscow.
“Netherlands will request the extradition of the man,” the statement by the prosecutors added.
The footballer was convicted in absentia by a Dutch court on February 14 of smuggling more than 1000kgs of cocaine.
Dutch public newscaster NOS quoted Russia media as having said that the footballer was arrested on March 1 for leaving the scene of a traffic accident in Dubai.
He is believed to have been arrested at Dubai airport as his club was flying out after a training camp.
Previous attempts to extradite him from Moscow had failed, and a judge in the Amsterdam District Court had issued an arrest warrant after his conviction.
The court said Promes, with the help of an accomplice, smuggled a total of 1,363 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil to the Netherlands through the Belgian port of Antwerp in 2020.
The drugs were hidden in salt bags inside a container on the ship, and customs officers later seized some of the drugs.
In a separate case, Promes was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay compensation for stabbing his cousin over a stolen necklace.
Promes scored seven goals in 50 appearances for the Netherlands. He was also part of the team that lost to the Czech Republic in the round of 16 at Euro 2020.
He has not worn the orange jersey since.
In 2019, Promes joined Dutch giants Ajax in Amsterdam after a €15 million move from Sevilla in the Spanish La Liga.
He left the Dutch capital for Moscow in 2021 and has since played for Spartak, where he stayed from 2014 to 2018 and was named Russia’s Player of the Year.
