How a soccer star became a cocaine trafficker | National Sports

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Quincy Promes was on his phone again.

The soccer star was constantly handling messages - about his role on the most famous team in the Netherlands, his place on the Dutch national squad and the endorsement deals that earned him a small fortune.

But this time, Promes was texting from a burner phone about his secret life off the field. It was early 2020, and one of the country’s most famous athletes was finalizing the import of a cocaine shipment arriving at a Belgian port.

“My boys are on their way to Antwerp,” wrote Promes, a forward at the time for Ajax Amsterdam. His phone records were later obtained by Dutch law enforcement and used to convict him of drug trafficking in an Amsterdam court this year.

Promes paid intermediaries - his “soldiers,” as he called them - to secure 2,850 pounds of cocaine that had arrived from Latin America, hidden in a shipping container packed with bags of salt.

Other traffickers seemed puzzled by Promes’s involvement.

“Is he definitely that footballer?” one asked in a separate text.

The intersection of sports and organized crime has raised alarms among major law enforcement agencies worldwide. Both the FBI and Interpol have established specialized sports units to investigate corrupt sports officials, criminal investors laundering money through teams and gamblers attempting to fix matches.

But when investigators began surveilling Promes, they encountered a different kind of target: an elite athlete seemingly obsessed with a life of crime. Investigators said Promes’s success on the field only fueled his desire for power on the streets of Amsterdam.

In a wiretapped conversation in July 2020, a friend asked Promes, “Do you make more money playing football or doing business?” - apparently referring to drug trafficking.

“Doing business,” Promes replied.

This account of Promes’s fall into criminality is drawn from hundreds of pages of court documents, including his text messages, as well as interviews with police and soccer officials. Promes did not respond to requests for comment, and his lawyer and family members declined to be interviewed. Promes had pleaded not guilty.

In February, however, Promes was sentenced to six years in prison. By that time, he had left the country to play for Spartak Moscow in Russia’s premier league, where he became a top scorer and remained beyond the reach of Dutch authorities. A few weeks later, he surfaced in Dubai, where he was briefly detained after Dutch authorities filed an extradition request.

Last month, with that request still pending, Promes announced another twist in the story: while fighting extradition, he would play professional soccer for United F.C., a second-division team in Dubai.

Promes’s legion of fans in the Netherlands have been stunned by the star’s fall from grace. Why would Promes, whose annual salary at Ajax was more than $3 million, risk everything by getting involved in drug trafficking?

But at the West Amsterdam police station, two veteran officers - Arno van Leeuwen and Bob Schagen - were not as shocked. For years, the officers had been quietly meeting with Promes as his star rose in professional soccer.

Van Leeuwen and Schagen have spent years investigating the connections between sports and crime in the Netherlands. These links, they say, are growing as young athletes, suddenly exposed to extraordinary wealth, become targets for criminal exploitation. Struggling players can also be vulnerable; last month, British forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, who had dropped to a second-division Scottish team, was arrested near Glasgow and charged with importing $800,000 worth of marijuana from Thailand. He was later released by his club.

According to investigators, Promes was viewed by those around him as a wealthy investor, someone fascinated with “gangsters” whose money could bankroll drug deals. With the surge in cocaine shipments arriving at Dutch ports, low-level criminal groups in the Netherlands have expanded their operations into large-scale drug trafficking.

Between 2018 and 2022, the amount of cocaine arriving at the Dutch port of Rotterdam - the largest in Europe - rose from 20.8 tons to 55.1 tons, a 164% increase, according to the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA). The nearby Belgian port of Antwerp experienced a similar surge, driven by growing collaboration between Latin American traffickers and European organized crime groups, police said.

Dutch police now collaborate with players and security officials at soccer clubs to warn of dangerous associations before athletes fall into criminal behavior. But in Promes, whom Van Leeuwen and Schagen once tried to steer away from organized crime, they found their most tragic failure.

The wrong kind of friends

For years, Promes had been crafting an alter ego through his rap songs, seemingly wanting his fans to believe he led a double life. In his lyrics, he alluded to his proximity to crime and violence, performing alongside men who would later be convicted of murder and kidnapping.

“We do not fear bullets,” Promes rapped in one song. “We see men running for their deaths.”

As time passed, his references to drug trafficking became more explicit. “All those containers, like a present, must be unwrapped,” he rapped on his track "Wicked Man."

It was easy for many to dismiss Promes's lyrics as mere bravado.

On the soccer field, he was graceful and tireless - a naturally gifted forward known for his speed and ball control. Like many of his peers in Dutch soccer, Promes emerged from an immigrant household.

Promes was born in the Osdorp neighborhood of east Amsterdam, a community of modest homes where many newcomers to the Netherlands settled. His parents came from Suriname, a former Dutch colony in South America. Growing up, Promes played soccer on the streets of his neighborhood, where even securing a spot in a game required toughness.

“You had to fight for your place,” Promes recalled in a 2020 Ajax promotional interview. “If you wanted to play football on the square, you had to have a certain attitude.”

By the time Promes was 13, soccer had already begun offering him a path to a better life. He was recruited to several of the country’s top youth academies, but his career was hindered by disciplinary problems. At 16, Promes was expelled from Ajax’s youth team. He later reflected in another Ajax interview that one reason was that he "made lots of the wrong kind of friends and was generally in a tornado."

Among his alleged contacts was Piet Wortel, a Dutch-Surinamese man whom police have long suspected of involvement in cocaine trafficking. Investigators believe Promes and Wortel collaborated in smuggling cocaine. Wortel could not be reached for comment.

A friendly warning

Van Leeuwen and Schagen were lifelong Ajax fans. In the late 2010s, the two officers reached out to a contact at Ajax, someone who acted as a fixer for the team. Dutch police had long collaborated with the country’s soccer clubs to address hooliganism and prevent violence at games.

But the officers wanted to deepen their relationship with Ajax. They proposed holding meetings with young players - especially those who had caught the attention of the police - to offer them guidance and counsel.

Their suggestion led to regular sessions and eventually became a formal assignment for Van Leeuwen and Schagen, after the Dutch police endorsed the initiative.

“We saw that these young players were vulnerable,” Van Leeuwen said. “These are guys who grew up in the same neighborhoods as criminals. It’s hard to distance yourself from your childhood friends.”

At the same time, European soccer had become a multi-billion-dollar industry, generating $35 billion in annual revenue. As players became increasingly valuable assets, clubs felt the need to protect them.

Ajax did not respond to requests for comment, but police officials noted that this kind of liaison relationship is common at European clubs. Van Leeuwen and Schagen flagged early warning signs to Ajax officials, identifying players who loaned team vehicles to childhood friends with criminal records - one such vehicle was later found with a bullet hole in the driver’s seat. In other cases, the detectives reported players who unknowingly assisted criminals in laundering money by selling luxury watches for cash.

In 2019, Van Leeuwen and Schagen heard from a colleague about a young Ajax player who had been in the passenger seat during a routine traffic stop. The driver was suspected of having ties to organized crime. The player was Promes.

By this time, Promes was a rising star, a prolific forward for both club and country. In June 2019, his goal against England had helped the Netherlands reach the UEFA Nations League final.

The Dutch media celebrated his ascent. One headline in De Volkskrant read, “Quincy Promes: from ballboy to top scorer.”

Although the traffic stop didn’t lead to any charges, Van Leeuwen and Schagen felt it was important to caution Promes about his associations. They were aware, however, that this type of advice could be misinterpreted, especially within the Surinamese community, where routine traffic stops like the one involving Promes were sometimes seen as racial profiling.

Promes later expressed his frustration with law enforcement in his music.

“Cars no lease,” he rapped in a mix of Dutch and English. “F--- the police.”

Still, the officers said their first meeting with Promes in the Ajax front office went well.

“We just told him, ‘We like you. We want to give you some awareness for your career,’” Van Leeuwen recalled.

Promes came across as innocent and perhaps naive. At one point, he solemnly admitted that he had very few friends. But just months after that meeting, Promes was stopped again with the same suspect. Van Leeuwen and Schagen requested another meeting, this time involving one of Ajax’s coaches.

“We told him, ‘We warned you the first time. Is there something you don’t understand?’” Van Leeuwen said.

Promes responded, saying it was hard to cut ties with people he had known for so long.

“I can’t leave them. I can’t say goodbye to my friends,” he told the officers.

Remaining in Moscow

By the time Van Leeuwen and Schagen met with Promes in 2019, he was already involved in cocaine trafficking, according to court documents, though the two officers were unaware of it at the time.

In hindsight, the officers realized that Promes had been hinting at his alter ego. After scoring goals, he would raise his hand over his face to form a mask. In a rap video, he wore a diamond-studded mask, and he even launched a clothing line called Mask QP.

How Promes got involved in the drug trade remains unclear. According to court filings, Dutch police received intelligence in 2020 that Promes had invested at least $200,000 in a drug deal as early as April 2018. This led to wiretaps and undercover surveillance in an operation they dubbed "Porto." Promes, like many criminals, used Sky ECC, an encrypted messaging service that was hacked by Belgian police in 2020, providing a treasure trove of intelligence to law enforcement across Europe.

Through these wiretaps, Dutch police learned about Promes's involvement in a cocaine shipment that arrived at the port of Antwerp. The ship, Cap Sant Nicolas, had made several stops in Latin America, including Uruguay, before crossing the Atlantic. Once the drugs were unloaded, Promes sent a message indicating his desire to stay involved in the operation: “I suggest we measure tomorrow afternoon.”

Prosecutors later revealed in court that Promes played a “directing and coordinating role” in the trafficking.

In July 2020, Dutch police learned from a wiretapped phone conversation that Promes had stabbed his cousin in the knee during a party in Amsterdam. The cousin was rushed to the hospital, and Promes was heard on the wiretap saying, “Next time he will get bullets.”

Despite the violent incident, Promes was still on Ajax's roster when he was arrested for the assault in December 2020. Reporters questioned Ajax officials about how they could justify keeping him on the team.

“He told me he didn’t do anything,” Ajax manager Erik ten Hag, now at Manchester United, said at the time. “In this country, you are innocent until proven otherwise. We stand behind him, including the entire locker room.”

Promes was convicted of the assault in June 2023.

Following the stabbing, Promes continued to represent Ajax in the 2020-2021 UEFA Champions League. It’s unclear when Ajax or the Dutch national team became aware of his involvement in drug trafficking. National team officials declined to comment.

Yehudi Moszkowicz, the lawyer representing Promes's cousin in the assault case, said he asked the Dutch prosecutor when a decision would be made to prosecute Promes for drug trafficking. He was told it would happen "after the European championships."

A Dutch prosecutor’s office spokesperson later explained that Promes’s arrest was delayed because of a league match. “It is not uncommon to take into account the schedule of the person to be arrested. For example, if someone can be arrested at home, it is preferred over arresting them in the workplace in the presence of all their colleagues,” said spokesperson Franklin Wattimena.

In February 2021, Promes was transferred to Spartak Moscow for a fee of 8.5 million euros. He continued playing for Spartak even after being sentenced to 18 months in prison for stabbing his cousin. However, Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the Netherlands, allowing Promes to remain in Moscow. Even after Russia invaded Ukraine, Promes stayed, while most Western players fled. He continued releasing rap videos, and in one, he waved a Russian flag.

Promes posted photos of himself at elite Moscow parties and began posting soccer-related images with Russian captions. He also flaunted a new diamond necklace with the word "Mask."

In February 2024, Promes was convicted in absentia on drug trafficking charges linked to the 2020 cocaine shipment. The court expressed its dismay that Promes, already a multimillionaire through soccer, still engaged in criminal activity to boost his wealth and prestige. "This makes it even more objectionable that the suspect tries to increase his wealth (and possibly also prestige in certain circles) through involvement in large international drug transports,” the court noted in its verdict.

Some of Promes’s former teammates were stunned by his downfall. “The Quincy Promes that you people read about is not the Quincy Promes that I know,” said Memphis Depay, a forward for the Dutch national team, earlier this year.

In March 2024, Dutch authorities announced that Promes had been arrested in Dubai at their request and that they were seeking his extradition. Although he was briefly jailed, Emirati authorities released him, and it remains unclear why he was not placed under house arrest. Dutch officials have yet to provide an update on their extradition request.

Despite the Interpol red notice issued in his name, Promes resumed posting photos of his life on Instagram, including shots of himself against the Dubai skyline and videos of him playing soccer and tennis. Emirati authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

Promes’s professional soccer career appeared to be over. In July, Spartak Moscow announced it had terminated his contract “due to personal reasons that prevented him from returning to Russia.”

Then, in early September, Dubai’s United F.C. posted a cryptic video on its Instagram account, showing a silhouetted man lacing up his cleats with the caption, “Big news coming soon.”

The next day, the team confirmed the man was Promes. In a statement, they welcomed him to the club, saying, “His arrival adds significant firepower to United FC’s squad as we prepare for an exciting season ahead.”

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How a soccer star became a cocaine trafficker | National Sports

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