Spartak Moscow's Promes sentenced to six years for drug trafficking

AMSTERDAM : A Dutch court on Wednesday sentenced Spartak Moscow forward Quincy Promes to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking.

Former Dutch international Promes did not attend court hearings in Amsterdam and is not expected to return to the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.

Prosecutors last month sought a nine year sentence for Promes, for his involvement in the smuggling of 1,360kg of cocaine through the port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.

The court said phone taps had shown that Promes had been directly involved with the shipments of the drugs, hidden in shipments of salt from Brazil, and their further transport from the port.

His lawyers told Dutch newspaper AD Promes would appeal his sentence, as he denies the charges of importing, exporting, transporting and possessing the drugs.

In another Dutch court case, the 32-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam and Sevilla forward was last year sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail for assault, in connection with a fight in 2020 in which he stabbed a cousin in the knee.

Promes has filed an appeal against that sentence as well.