Dutch footballer Quincy Promes arrested in drug smuggling case

Spartak Moscow forward Quincy Promes has been arrested in Dubai at the request of the Netherlands where he was sentenced last month to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking, Dutch prosecutors said late on Wednesday.

The Netherlands will ask for the extradition of the 32-year-old former Dutch international, the prosecutors said.

Promes did not attend court hearings in his case in Amsterdam and was not expected to return to the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.

Prosecutors said Promes was arrested through a so-called Red Notice, a worldwide request to law enforcement to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition.

The Amsterdam court last month said Promes had been directly involved with the shipments of 1,360 kg of cocaine from Brazil through the port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.

In another Dutch court case, the 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 denied all charges and has filed an appeal in both cases.