A former Gillingham player has been charged over a £600,000 drug seizure.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, 33, has been charged after two suitcases of cannabis were seized at Stansted Airport.

Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested and taken to Carlisle for questioning on Wednesday.

The National Crime Agency stated that a 33-year-old had been detained in an operation supported by officers from Police Scotland over the drug smuggling.

That came after two women were arrested at Stansted on September 2, after Border Force officers detected around 60 kilos of the drug which had arrived on a flight from Bangkok.

Both were charged with drug importation offences and bailed.

Emmanuel-Thomas joined the Gills in the summer of 2016 on a season-long loan, but that was cut short when Ady Pennock took over.

On loan from QPR, the former Arsenal player made 28 league appearances for the Gills and scored seven goals.

His final game for the club came at Coventry in February 2017 where he was replaced at half-time having gone 11 games without a goal.

He was the leading scorer for the Gills at the time, with 10 in total, but despite his goals, fans and management were often left frustrated by his laid-back style.

Following his release by QPR, he had a spell playing in Thailand for PTT Rayong and went onto play in Scotland for Livingston and Aberdeen.

More recently, he had a spell playing in India before moving back to England and joining Kidderminster Harriers. He moved back north of the border in the summer to play for Greenock Morton.

In August, the National Crime Agency issued a warning to travellers arriving into the UK from Thailand, Canada and the United States that they face jail sentences if caught attempting to bring cannabis into the country, after a surge in arrests.

They have said that the amount of cannabis seized so far in 2024 is already over three times more than in the whole of 2023 and warned: “People travelling with the drugs as couriers reported being told by their recruiters that they were only risking a fine if caught.

“However, the maximum sentence for cannabis importation in the UK is up to 14 years in prison.”