Former Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was jailed for four years on Thursday for his involvement in a £600,000 ($812,000) drug smuggling plot.

The 34-year-old was arrested in September last year after officers seized roughly 60 kilograms of cannabis brought through London's Stansted Airport by two women he had recruited - his girlfriend and her friend - on a flight from the Thai capital Bangkok via Dubai.

An earlier hearing heard the women, who were found not guilty, believed they were importing gold.

Emmanuel-Thomas, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a smuggling charge, was sacked by Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton after his arrest.