Stam and his brother, Rudi Stam, were arrested on June 10th, 2024, and have been in custody since. The Stam brothers were charged with smuggling 2217 kilograms of cocaine, worth 57 million euros, and laundering money.
During Tuesday's court case, Stam refused to say anything about the shipments of 893 kilograms of cocaine from Costa Rica in 2020, the 700 kilos of cocaine from Chile in 2021, another batch of 600 grams of cocaine, and the four kilos of cocaine and five kilos of MDMA which were meant to go to Paris.
He did admit smuggling 20 kilos of cocaine from Brazil to Frankfurt by mail in 2020 and using nitrous oxide, although he "knew nothing" about the 18 litres the police found in his fuse box in his Eindhoven apartment.
The court found large groups of texts between Ronnie and Rudi, whom the public prosecutor concluded to be instrumental in trafficking cocaine in the criminal circuit from 2020. The two discussed hiding places of their money, exchange rates, underground banking, transports, cryptocurrency wallets, bookkeeping lists, lists of who owed what, and sent each other photos of blocks of cocaine. Stam called the texts "bluster and nonsense."
The public prosecutor charged Ronnie Stam with 13 years in prison and his brother Rudi with 74 months. The Stam brothers' lawyers will speak on Wednesday.
League Cup winner
The 40-year-old Stam started and ended his football career with NAC Breda. The right-back also played for FC Twente, Wigan Athletic, and Standard Liege. With Wigan, Stam won the League Cup in 2013. Stam, of whom former Wigan manager Roberto Martinez said "people paid to see play", ended his career in 2016.