When Marylio V was escorted from his cell in Amsterdam’s district courtroom on October 31, his alleged confederate in a medication bust involving 1,363kg (3,005lbs) of cocaine with a road worth estimated at £65million ($82m) was nowhere to be seen.
There was no expectation, nevertheless, that Quincy Promes, a Dutch worldwide footballer with 50 caps, would present up.
He didn’t seem at his earlier prison case both. That was in June 2023, when he was discovered responsible of stabbing his cousin within the knee at a household get together the place, the courtroom heard, “the Hennessy flowed freely.”
The 18-month sentence for that offence is but to start out as a result of Promes, 31, has remained out of attain of the Dutch justice system, having stayed in Russia all through the trial, enjoying for Spartak Moscow.
Individually, in keeping with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, Marylio V and Promes had organized to smuggle two shipments of cocaine into the Belgian port of Antwerp through the Cap San Nicolas container vessel in January 2020.
The primary batch, hidden in sacks of salt, which concerned 650 blocks of cocaine, has by no means been discovered. The second batch had a brand of a tiger stamped on it and weighed in at 712kgs after being intercepted by Belgian police.
Forward of the total case, which is because of begin in January 2024, Marylio V failed in his try to realize bail, having revealed in courtroom that he plans, with out implicating Promes, to confess his guilt of a “small position” that the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) claims was, in reality, a lot larger.
Among the many choose’s concerns on this attraction was the defendant’s prison report. Marylio V had already been sentenced to 4 years in jail in Belgium for importing 882kgs of cocaine on Might 27, 2019.
Quincy Promes, proper, enjoying for the Netherlands in 2014 (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Photographs)
He grew to become the main target of one other main investigation which took the code identify “Porto” and centred on Promes’ suspected involvement in “the total cocaine commerce”. It adopted tip-offs in 2018 and 2019 that led officers to analyse encrypted correspondence involving BlackBerry cell phones and EncroChat.
It was throughout this investigation that officers heard Promes discussing stabbing his cousin. “The place did I hit him?” he requested a member of the family shortly after the incident, in keeping with taped conversations.
When he found that he’d hit his cousin within the leg, Promes thought it was fortunate. “I didn’t goal at his leg in any respect, I wished to place it on his neck,” he mentioned, earlier than including: “Subsequent time he’ll get bullets.” And to his father, who intervened, he advised: “You saved his life. In any other case, I’ll kill him. You perceive that, don’t you?”
Although Promes was initially charged with tried homicide, it was downgraded to aggravated assault after the participant’s lawyer argued that the proof was not admissible because the warrant to faucet his telephone was initially issued on account of an curiosity in his alleged “unrelated” drug offences.
At a separate pre-trial listening to final summer time, the courtroom heard how Promes and Marylio V allegedly tried to import the cocaine into Europe in January 2020.
On February 25, 2020, the PPS claimed that Promes knowledgeable different conspirators that “my earlier supply was a half failure. They got here in two trays, one fell, one received jammed, so my entire revenue was halved.”
Promes speaks to media at a Dutch coaching camp in 2014 (Koen van Weel/ANP/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Within the subsequent message site visitors, prosecutors say that Promes confirmed he had paid a part of the acquisition value for the cocaine by writing, “My boys are on their option to Antwerp,” the place couriers have been directed to a shisha lounge.
What adopted was image proof, allegedly on the door of a warehouse, exhibiting the trailer carrying one of many containers and the cocaine inside. When the cargo was moved by truck to Verrebroek, 20km north west of Antwerp, Promes is alleged to have inspired the boys.
“Hold us knowledgeable,” he’s accused of claiming. “Get to work, boys.”
By no means earlier than has a Dutch footballer with the stature of Promes been charged with such severe offences. But an examination of the courtroom hearings involving him is a reminder of the potential for overlap between the worlds of footballers and criminality within the Netherlands, and Amsterdam particularly.
Usually talking, Amsterdam is a secure place. Whereas Catania in Italy tops the European crime index, carefully adopted by Marseille in France, Birmingham and Coventry in England and Charleroi in Belgium, Amsterdam sits means down in 94th place.
It additionally suffers from roughly half of the crime registered in New York Metropolis or London, for instance. But the toleration of sure medication, significantly hashish, makes it a vacation spot for suppliers, whereas Schiphol Airport is among the largest in Europe, and subsequently a handy assembly level for traffickers.
Within the deal that introduced him to the eye of the legislation, the Dutch justice division believes Promes, who was born and raised in Amsterdam, invested €200,000 into the drug commerce. In that deal, it was alleged that the convicted drug trafficker Piet Wortel and one other well-known trafficker “earned €6million”.
At first of 2023, the PPS claimed Promes had paid a considerable superb to Wortel for a batch of medicine that was stolen by a rival gang.
In keeping with the PPS file, Wortel was additionally suspected of being behind the 2019 homicide of former skilled footballer, Kelvin Maynard, who was shot a number of occasions in entrance of a hearth station in south-east Amsterdam, allegedly in revenge for the theft of 400kgs of cocaine.
Each Promes and Wortel denied these allegations. Whereas Promes’ lawyer described the suggestion his shopper had paid Wortel as “complete nonsense,” Wortel’s consultant insisted there was little proof in opposition to his shopper over Maynard’s demise, calling the claims “gossip and backbiting.”
The PPS acknowledged in January 2023 that it nonetheless had “no spherical case” in opposition to Wortel, and two months later he was launched from detention over these costs.
It leaves the homicide of Maynard as an unsolved case. In 2019, his demise acquired nationwide consideration, not essentially as a result of he was a footballer however due to the response of firefighters who have been condemned for taking images of paramedics attempting, in useless, to resuscitate him. These photos have been distributed amongst associates earlier than discovering their means onto social media.
Kelvin Maynard, enjoying right here for Burton Albion, was murdered in 2019 (David Rogers/Getty Photographs)
In contrast to Promes, Maynard’s profession was unremarkable. He performed top-flight soccer within the Netherlands however not for any of the main golf equipment, earlier than heading to Royal Antwerp in 2013. There he met Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the previous Chelsea and Netherlands striker who’s now working with the England nationwide crew. Hasselbaink took Maynard to English lower-league membership Burton Albion in 2014 when he started the primary of his two spells as supervisor there.
One in all his former team-mates at Burton, who would like to not be named on account of sensitivities across the method of his demise, remembers Maynard fondly due to his work ethic. He all the time gave the impression to be on the entrance of the working periods, was smiley and sociable. He thinks he labored as a DJ in his spare time. Maynard appeared, “a very nice man — you’d by no means think about he’d get himself concerned in something like that.”
In keeping with stories on the time of Maynard’s capturing, he spent his final afternoon at a flat within the south east of town. After bringing his spouse and youngest baby house, he returned to Zuidoost earlier than parking his gray Volkswagen Golf close to a metro station, the place he met a bunch of Surinamese males carrying Nike tracksuits, who drove off in a darkish blue Volkswagen Polo.
He was adopted on a black scooter by two males, and when he stopped at a pink gentle, they approached from the aspect earlier than firing a number of rounds at him from shut vary. Although he tried to speed up away, he met his finish within the forecourt of the fireplace station earlier than the photographs of that second went viral.
The fireplace station the place Maynard died in 2019 (Sem van der Wal/AFP through Getty Photographs)
His household advised that he was a youth employee who had nearly accomplished his school training. But an in depth report within the Het Parool newspaper a day after the capturing advised Maynard and his associates, which included Genciel ‘Genna’ Feller, who was murdered simply over a fortnight earlier in Curacao, had lately purchased “loads of very costly issues, together with luxurious vehicles. Maynard posed in a photograph with an outsized wad of banknotes.”
The writer of that article was crime reporter Paul Vugt. In 2013, Vugt lined one other story which helped clarify why the pursuits of footballers and criminals merge. “Sometimes, gamers unintentionally grow to be concerned in prison points that they’d reasonably have stayed out of, however typically they consciously work collectively,” he wrote.
He advised that in Amsterdam, a world-famous former footballer had been noticed a number of occasions by town’s police division socialising in an underworld determine’s entourage, particularly at a martial arts gala. In the meantime, criminals from Amsterdam’s diamond district would repeatedly drive across the metropolis within the Porsche sports activities automobile of a Dutch worldwide. It was thought that the footballer and not less than one of many criminals had collectively invested in a fitness center in addition to the catering trade.
It’s not all the time the participant’s fault. The mom of Patrick Kluivert’s sons, for instance, began a relationship with an Amsterdam prison and the couple have been convicted in a cash laundering and extortion trial the place particulars about Kluivert’s relationship along with his household have been revealed.
When, in 2013, an argument began between members of two rival gangs at a celebration in Amsterdam’s maritime museum, a safety guard advised he had seen Denny Landzaat, one other former Dutch worldwide whose profession took him to the Premier League with Wigan Athletic, attempting to calm the state of affairs.
Landzaat was caught up in an altercation between Amsterdam gangs (Erik van ‘t Woud/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Landzaat denied this declare. What’s simple is that, moments later, one of many males was shot useless. It was believed that Dwight Tiendalli – then contracted to Swansea Metropolis – alongside along with his brother, Wensley, was within the firm of the sufferer that evening. Witnesses advised police that Wensley was seen taking a gold watch from the sufferer’s wrist after the capturing. He was later arrested due to the “great amount of payments” discovered on his particular person however the case was dismissed, solely after Wensley had advised police that he was the “money holder” that night. He denied taking the watch.
Dwight, in the meantime, advised investigators that he “solely shook fingers” with the sufferer of the assault, after which noticed little of him on the desk till Wensley got here to report that somebody had been shot.
It was established he had nothing to do with the underworld feud. One of many males behind the capturing, nevertheless, was considered an in depth confidant of Gwenette Martha, a gangster from the De Pijp space of town, who himself was executed in 2014.
It’s believed that Martha was a junior footballer at an expert membership earlier than he grew to become an expert prison. A 12 months after his demise, detectives in Amsterdam found that somebody linked to the prison was driving a automobile rented to an Ajax youth participant, who had gotten right into a combat within the centre of Amsterdam. This led to an assault in Zuidoost the place the bullets lodged at the back of the driving force’s seat.
The discovering led to the now-retired detectives, Arno van Leeuwen and Bob Schagen, working with Ajax in an try to coach the membership’s younger gamers in regards to the risks of being drawn into criminality.
They nonetheless use the images of the automobile that was shot at in shows to youth gamers, the place they level out that even typically harmless contacts and favours can have unexpected however vital penalties.
Which brings us again to Promes. In 2012, he described himself as “a road rat… if everybody else went left, I went proper”. Although Promes then insisted he was not a prison, he described his childhood in an interview on Ajax’s web site after re-signing for the membership for €17.2million in 2019 as “shifting from neighbourhood to neighbourhood” along with his mom after she divorced from his father, the place he made “new and dangerous associates and ended up in a sort of twister.” His earlier spell at Ajax had ended on account of behavioural issues.
At Ajax, Promes was warned in regards to the firm he stored by Van Leeuwen and Schagen, who sat down to speak to him twice.
On the primary event, it was after he was seen with the rapper JoeyAK, a rapper from the Bijlmer rap group Zone 6, which has been linked with gun crime and the worldwide cocaine commerce.
Promes enjoying for Ajax in opposition to Liverpool in 2020 (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Photographs)
The second time, it was due to his friendship with a half-brother of the gangster rapper, Jason L, who has since been sentenced in jail for 18 years for homicide.
The pleas to rethink who he was associating with don’t seem to have sunk in, which helps clarify why Promes is a wished man within the Netherlands.
He is protected against justice as he’s residing in Moscow, the place he performs for one in every of his former golf equipment, Spartak, as Russia doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the Netherlands. His switch was accomplished two months after he was arrested for stabbing his cousin in December 2020.
Although he was chosen by Frank de Boer for the Dutch squad that competed within the European Championships in the summertime of 2021, he misplaced his place underneath the following coach, Louis van Gaal, who didn’t wish to choose “gamers concerned in such issues”.
Promes has since grow to be the highest-scoring foreigner in Russian soccer historical past, overtaking Brazilian Vagner Love and Iranian Sardar Azmoun.
But this achievement has not earned him a recall to the nationwide crew underneath present coach Ronald Koeman, who this month secured qualification for subsequent summer time’s European Championship in Germany.
Quincy Promes celebrates successful the Russian Cup last in 2022 (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP through Getty Photographs)
That’s as a result of the following time Promes units foot within the Netherlands, he’s prone to be arrested once more.
In his absence, all official communication has come by way of the participant’s lawyer, Robert Malewicz, who has denied his shopper’s involvement within the stabbing and drug trafficking and appealed for the fees for which he has already been convicted overturned.
When The Athletic approached Malewicz for direct remark from the footballer in regards to the accusations he’s dealing with, he replied by stating that Promes won’t speak to the media, “not less than, not till we go to courtroom within the Netherlands”.
This would possibly counsel that he plans to attempt to clear his identify in particular person. He rejected the possibility to supply steerage and when he was requested particularly to make clear whether or not Promes would return to the nation the place he was born, Malewicz added: “I can’t touch upon that.”
What is understood is that Promes remained in Russia throughout final summer time’s low season, visiting the Sochi area the place he employed a helicopter to fly above a waterfall. He additionally missed Spartak’s 2022 winter coaching camp within the United Arab Emirates, which had lately signed a brand new extradition treaty with the Netherlands, partly to crack down on these accused of drug offences. On the time, Malewicz advised Promes was “simply not fairly match” and was as an alternative coaching alone again in Moscow.
Inside Russia, Promes has not tried to cover. His social media accounts stay open and he seems to be having fun with himself. Maybe it helps Promes that he’s naturally an expressive form of particular person, who on Instagram, not less than, has all the time tried to point out that he’s completely happy.
Apart from being a footballer, he has enterprise pursuits in a clothes model known as Masks QP, whereas he has additionally carried out as a rapper, releasing a music earlier this 12 months known as “Liars”, the place he appeared to discuss with his innocence. “It began as a lie, individuals wish to speak however I nonetheless have my reminiscence,” he sings.
Promes, whose household’s roots are in Suriname, produces its nationwide flag in one in every of his movies, in addition to the Russian one — however not that of the Netherlands, although he sings in Dutch and English.
Whereas some Russians have seen this as his means of exhibiting gratitude to the nation, others have, albeit quietly, requested whether or not he’s manipulating a grave political state of affairs of world significance for his personal ends.
Undoubtedly, the warfare in Ukraine, which has led to the ban of Russian groups from European competitors, has helped shield Promes as a result of his standing as a wished man has not been examined past Russia’s borders.
Promes had invested in a Moscow nightclub known as the Black Star Lounge earlier than it was offered. Even earlier than returning to Spartak for a second spell after being spirited out of Ajax, he had seemingly adjusted culturally to a rustic the place international gamers typically wrestle due to the language and the climate.
Being at Spartak, Promes performs for the most well-liked membership within the nation and this interprets into private reputation, boosted by his public statements that European media claims that racial prejudice is rife in Russia are “sensationalised”.
Regardless of the dimensions of the fees in opposition to him, any focus within the case in opposition to Promes has not likely gathered tempo outdoors the Netherlands. That, maybe, is partly as a result of he has performed 233 of his 434 membership profession video games in Russia, which even in a time of peace, is a rustic that lies on the hinterland of wider European soccer curiosity.
It might need been totally different had he left Twente in 2014 for a giant membership in western Europe. At the moment, he felt pushed out due to the membership’s perilous monetary place. He didn’t wish to go to Moscow or play within the Russian league, however the deal supplied the most effective resolution for everybody.
Almost a decade later, and when you solely adopted Russian protection of the matter, you’ll barely know that Promes is even dealing with costs. Since 2020, Spartak have launched only one assertion on the topic, with the membership’s web site suggesting earlier this 12 months — after he was discovered responsible of aggravated assault — that the courtroom determination was not last till the attraction course of was completed.
A Russian journalist, who would like to stay nameless on account of restrictions on press freedoms within the nation, suggests Promes has been allowed to dwell as he pleases due to the battle with Ukraine, which has resulted in Russia changing into a pariah within the west.
He describes Promes as “somebody who’s extra linked to us than them”.
Throughout his first spell in Moscow, Promes lived alone on one of many highest flooring of a tower block within the centre of the capital however, this time, he’s supposedly along with his household, residing on the outskirts of town in a compound.
At weekends, when he’s not scoring targets for Spartak, he typically watches one in every of his sons play for a junior crew, and the one hassle he will get is the adulation of those that wish to congratulate him for his achievements on the nation’s most well-known membership.
If he’s involved about what he’s being accused of again house, he hides it effectively.
(Prime picture: AFP through Getty Photographs; design: Eamonn Dalton)
