1,000 cannabis plants found in basement of former Premier League star

If it was not for a power outage, the discovery may have never been made.

Geoffrey Mujangi Bia had two different loan spells in England and has two international caps with Belgium. The 30-year-old, who played Championship football with Watford and two seasons of Premier League football with Wolves, must have been cursing his luck when the power went out at his place, earlier this year. When the electricity company sent a van around to investigate the source of the outage, Mujangi Bia may have cursed his luck again. He was the one that placed a call in the first place. According to Belgian outlet Sud Info, the electricity company technicians reported to police that there was a strong smell emanating from the basement of Mujangi Bia's property, where they then discovered a cannabis plantation. Police arrested the former Belgian international despite his protests that he was renting the basement out and was not aware of what was going on. Police discovered over 1,000 cannabis plants, which were subsequently confiscated. The investigating magistrate did not fully buy that excuse and an arrest warrant was issued. Mujangi Bia has been requested to appear in court again, in Brussels, next week. Born in Kinshasa, in Zaire, Mujangi Bia came through the Anderlecht youth system but he made his senior debut with Charleroi. He made his senior international debut in 2009 against Chile and lined out one more time for the 'Red Devils'. After his two years with Wolves, for whom he played eight times, he had a successful run with Standard Liege. There was a brief return to England, on loan to Watford, and he played in Switzerland and Turkey, where he won a Turkish Cup with Bursapor, after he left Standard. The attacking midfielder had been hoping to secure a loan move to an Israeli team but the arrest and possible sentence could scupper that switch.

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