Pietro Menga, a fighter once signed to the UFC, received a 15 year and 5-month prison sentence after he plead guilty to conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited weapons and conspiracy to supply cocaine, according to a report from the Greater Manchester police.
The 37-year-old “Italian Stallion” once stepped in as a short-notice replacement against Tim Elliott at UFC on FOX 26 back in 2017 but failed to make weight and was released without ever fighting for the UFC.
According to the police report, “Menga came to the attention of Greater Manchester Police in 2020 after the NCA infiltrated the once encrypted messaging platform service, Encrochat. Specialist detectives in our Serious Organised Crime Group trawled through thousands of anonymous messages detailing drug deals, firearms sales, and assassination attempts, cross referencing the sporadic personal details which were discussed in and amongst the criminal business deals.
“After identifying Menga through messages where he openly spoke about his girlfriend, his knee injuries from fighting, and his home gym, detectives were able to piece together evidence which demonstrated the anonymous user was in fact Menga.”
