A mixed martial arts world champion who fights under the name ‘The Polish Bear’ acted as a courier for a drugs network bringing huge quantities of cocaine to Norfolk.
Przemyslaw Mysiala, 41, who has held six championship belts and is an internationally recognised name among fight fans, faces a “very substantial jail sentence” after being found guilty at Norwich Crown Court.
It comes after he was arrested on the A11 with £72,000 in cash in his car after delivering two kilos of cocaine at a rendezvous in Trowse, on the outskirts of Norwich, that was observed by a covert police operation.
Prosecutor Isobel Ascherson said Operation Oxon, which began in June 2021, had smashed a drugs network with 13 people arrested and seven co-defendants having already been found guilty.
The gang had been involved in flooding the streets of both Norwich and Lowestoft with huge amounts of cocaine with members found in possession of many kilos of drugs and hundreds of thousands of pounds, she added.
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The five-day trial heard a covert officer - who gave evidence anonymously using the codename 6578 - had been watching a Lithuanian man as part of the operation when he had met Mysiala in Trowse.
Following the meeting in Mysiala’s car on Whitlingham Lane officers had described him returning to his own vehicle with a “very weighty” rucksack.
He was arrested with the drugs just nine minutes later having driven to his home address on Scott Lane, off Yarmouth Road, while Mysiala was stopped heading back south with a huge quantity of cash.
A jury took just three hours to find Mysiala, a Polish national who has been in the UK since 2005 and lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, guilty of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and possession of criminal property.
Anthony Montgomery, defending, said he had denied delivering drugs saying he had simply acted as a debt collector after being asked by the friend of a friend to travel to Norwich to pick up cash.
But the court was told the police investigation had found he had also visited Norwich on three previous occasions over a two-month period.
Prosecutors said Mysiala, who had no previous criminal convictions, had turned to involvement in drug supply after running into financial troubles when mixed martial arts events had to be cancelled during the Covid pandemic.
The previous holder of the Ultimate Warrior Challenge and Extreme Brawl world titles and a member of the Ultimate Fight Championship, had seen a lucrative fight in Miami called off, the court heard.
Recorder Ruth Brander told Mysiala, who showed no reaction to the guilty verdicts, he faces a “very substantial custodial sentence”.
Denying him bail and remanding him in custody until his sentencing she said there were “substantial grounds to believe that he would fail to surrender”.
He will be sentenced on February 8.
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