Former Dutch international and Ajax winger Quincy Promes has been extradited to the Netherlands to begin a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being convicted of drug trafficking and aggravated assault.
Promes, 33, who had been playing professional football in Dubai, was arrested following a formal extradition request by the Dutch authorities.
He arrived in the Netherlands on a rented plane and was promptly moved to a prison facility where he began his sentence.
According to reports, his earliest possible release date is 2030, subject to parole eligibility and the outcome of any legal appeals.
In February 2024, an Amsterdam court sentenced Promes to six years in prison after finding him guilty of smuggling 1,360 kilogrammes of cocaine into the Netherlands in two separate shipments from Belgium in 2020.
The drugs were linked to organised trafficking groups, with which Promes allegedly had regular communication.
While Promes contested the claims, the court cited eyewitness testimony and intercepted phone calls as compelling evidence of his direct involvement in the worldwide narcotics trade.
The footballer was already sentenced to 18 months in prison for stabbing his cousin at a family event in 2020.
That term, too, had not been served because Promes remained outside Dutch jurisdiction until his latest capture and extradition.
The two convictions combine for a total term of seven and a half years.
The footballer was once regarded as one of the Netherlands’ most promising football players, rising through the ranks at Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, and Ajax before earning over 50 caps for the Dutch national team.
Following the criminal investigations, his career experienced a severe nosedive, resulting in his exit from Ajax and migration to the UAE.
