[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, a former footballer with dual Portuguese and Angolan nationality has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his involvement in drug trafficking. The 29-year-old former player has not been publicly identified.
He had hidden 14.26 kilograms of heroin and 9 kilograms of ecstasy in a vehicle shipped from Lisbon to Madeira. He was arrested by police when he went to collect the car at the Port of Caniçal on Madeira. The arrest was part of the police’s anti-drug operation Aniversário, which seized the largest quantity of heroin in Madeira’s history. The former player was arrested on October 22, 2024, and had been held in preventive detention ever since. On Tuesday local time, the Court of Funchal in Madeira, Portugal, found him guilty and handed down an eight-year prison sentence. The judge who delivered the ruling stressed that the former player was only a drug courier and not the actual owner of the narcotics.
The editor believes that it is deeply lamentable to see former players fall from the football pitch into the path of drug trafficking. It is unexpected that retired players would turn to a life of crime in their “post-career life”.