Former footballer Sergio ‘Koke’ Contreras has opened up on being convicted as a drug trafficker, after being given parole.
Contreras who told Canal plus (via Marca) that he would be headed back to prison at some point, with four more years on his sentence. Formerly of Malaga, Rayo Vallecano, Sporting CP and Olympique Marseille, Contreras is convicted of playing a leading role in an organisation that trafficked drugs and weapons, after being found by police with a tonne of cocains and several weapons.
He recently posted €15k in bail, and spend a little less than two years in prison beforehand, serving some of his eventual six-year sentence.
“Life is a little complicated. You have to pay for stupid things. We need to put an end to this as quickly as possible. I come from a neighbourhood in Malaga where all my friends are childhood friends… I have contacts everywhere, but I am not Pablo Escobar! When you hear that you’re an ‘international trafficker’ you say ‘What the hell have I done?”
Koke did not deny that he was earning plenty of money as a footballer, but clearly was addicted to increasing his earnings by nefarious means.
“As a football player, you are lucky to earn a lot of money. I earned maybe a million euros a year. In the other business, you earn in two months what you can earn in a year in football. But you are risking your life.”
Contreras said the fact that he was footballer didn’t change a great deal for him in prison, having now returned from France to Spain.
“In France, they can kill you very quickly for that. Here in prison they can also kill you, but I’m not afraid. The prison is open for stupid people. I’m going back to prison, I don’t know for how long, but I have a sentence until 2027.”
Retiring in 2017 at Northeast United in the Indian league, Contreras enjoyed something of a journeyman career, never quite settling. Over the course of his 13-year career, he played for 11 different clubs, traversing the globe too. The 40-year-old’s longest spell was at Aris Thessaloniki, where he remained for five years, making 176 appearances, scoring 39 goals and giving 25 assists.
