A professional footballer who played for MK Dons has admitted orchestrating the smuggling of £600,000 worth of cannabis to the UK, following a National Crime Agency investigation.

Jay Emmanuel Thomas, 34, recruited two women to travel to Thailand where the cannabis was collected and smuggled to the UK.

The 33-year-old played four games for Dons during his loan spell at the club in 2016, and was pegged as one of the key signings in the January transfer window to help the club stave off relegation from the Championship.

This week a court heard how, Thomas’s girlfriend Yasmin Piotrowska, 33, and her friend Rosie Rowland, 29, were stopped by Border Force officers at Stansted Airport last September after landing on a flight from Bangkok.

MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 09: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas of Milton Keynes Dons in action during the Sky Bet Championship match between Milton Keynes Dons and Middlesbrough at StadiumMK on February 9, 2016 in Milton Keynes, England. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)

placeholder image — MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 09: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas of Milton Keynes Dons in action during the Sky Bet Championship match between Milton Keynes Dons and Middlesbrough at StadiumMK on February 9, 2016 in Milton Keynes, England. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)

They had two suitcases each, which were searched, and a total of 60kg of cannabis – 15kg in each bag – was recovered.

Piotrowska, of Kensal Green, London, and Rowland, of Chelmsford, Essex, were charged with smuggling cannabis.

Thomas, who has played for Arsenal, Queens Park Rangers and Ipswich Town, admitted smuggling cannabis when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The Crown offered no evidence against the women, who said they believed they were transporting gold, and they were acquitted.

It is believed Thomas, who now lives in Gourock, near Glasgow, was the intermediary between suppliers in Thailand and drug pushers in the UK.

The investigation revealed that with Thomas’s encouragement, the women had made a near identical trip – all expenses paid and a promised payment of £2,500 - a few months earlier in July.

Thomas, who played for PTT Rayong in Thailand in 2019, was arrested on 18 September last year after he had signed for Greenock Morton FC in Scotland.

On his way to custody after being arrested, he said unprompted: “I just feel sorry for the girls.”

He will be sentenced on a date to be confirmed.

David Philips, a National Crime Agency senior investigating officer, said: “Organised crime groups make significant profits by trafficking and selling perceived high-quality cannabis legally grown in the US, Canada and Thailand illegally in the UK.

“Organised criminals like Thomas can be very persuasive and offer payment to couriers. But the risk of getting caught is very high and it simply isn’t worth it.”