Quincy Promes has broken the silence he kept through his original trial in 2024. His defense told the appeal judges that he had already given a detailed account of the smuggling case in June, at a closed hearing that had gone unreported until Knoops disclosed it in court on Monday.
“He explained how he became involved in the case,” Knoops said.
The lawyer added that his client had also spoken about the use of encrypted phones, communications that are expected to be a central element of the appeal.
Amsterdam District Court sentenced Promes to six years in prison in February 2024 for helping to import more than 1,350 kilograms of cocaine through the Belgian port of Antwerp in 2020. He was tried in absentia while living in Moscow and denied any involvement at the time. The operation ran in two separate consignments concealed in cargo from Brazil, one of roughly 650 kilograms brought in via the Westerschelde and a second of about 713 kilograms intercepted at the Port of Antwerp.
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His cousin, identified only as Marylio V. under Dutch privacy conventions, is a co-defendant in the same case. On appeal, the cousin was handed three years and eight months, and the appeal court has ruled he can be questioned in November about the new account Promes gave in June.
From Dubai arrest to Dutch cell
Promes was arrested in Dubai in March 2024 and extradited to the Netherlands on June 20, 2025. He has been in pretrial detention ever since, with the appeal court refusing his release more than once on the grounds of the sentence he faces and his earlier flight from Dutch jurisdiction.
Prosecutors are also pursuing €8 million from Promes in criminal proceeds, a figure built from his own statements. He is said to have described being paid between €29,000 and €33,000 per block of cocaine, and to have handled around 650 blocks in total.
A stabbing verdict on top of the drugs
The appeal court will hear a second, separate case at the same sitting. Promes received an 18-month sentence for stabbing a relative at a family gathering in July 2020, in a dispute over a stolen necklace. Earlier this year he acknowledged the stabbing.
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He won 50 caps for the Netherlands and scored seven international goals, in a career that took him through Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and Ajax before he returned to Spartak, where he was still playing when the original verdict was handed down.
The merits hearings in the combined appeal are set for November 30 and December 2 at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.
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