'Italian Stallion' MMA fighter jailed for over 15 years for drugs and firearms offences

With his day job as an MMA fighter, Pietro Menga, also known as ‘The Italian Stallion’, had a more lucrative job as a middleman for an organised crime group, where he was directly involved in sourcing large quantities of cocaine for customers across the region, all of which he made commission on.

Today, Pietro Menga (15/02/1988) of Mount Street, Swinton, was jailed for 15 years and five months. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited weapons and conspiracy to supply cocaine.

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. 

Believing his messages were safe owing to the once encrypted nature the platform offered service users, Menga, using the nameless handle ‘wirelessshark’, was having frank conversations with other criminals, openly discussing the sale and purchase of wholesale amounts of drugs and firearms.

From the messages on his encrypted mobile phone, a drugs expert estimated the street sale value of drugs that Menga was involved in were worth between £490,000 to £620,000, and he showed no indication of slowing down or stepping away from the world of crime.

Further messages also showed Menga was involved with the OCG responsible for a record-breaking firearm trafficking conspiracy, all of whom we convicted earlier this year for over 200 years. In one conversation, he refers to the Skorpion automatic machine guns as a ‘tastey bit of kit’ that are ‘always good for a rainy day’ stating it comes with ammunition. Police also uncovered several similar conversations of this nature, with Menga attempting to source firearms for other individuals.

On 15 January 2024, police executed a warrant at Menga’s home address on Mount Street in Swinton and he was arrested.

Menga was identified following extensive work which fell under Operation Foam, which was GMP’s overarching response to the national take down of Encrochat. Under Operation Foam, we’ve made over 300 arrests, successfully dismantling several OCGs. We’ve placed some of Greater Manchester’s most prolific criminals behind bars for over 1000 years and prevented industrial volumes of drugs, firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition from making their way to our streets.

This operation is very much ongoing, and with several more warrants and investigations on the horizon, we continue to protect the public by arresting the kingpins and middle-tier criminals who thought they were untouchable. The overwhelming evidence from their encrypted devices has meant we’ve had sufficient evidence to prosecute them and demonstrate there is nowhere for criminals to hide in Greater Manchester.

Detective Constable Shiels from our Serious Organised Crime Group said: “Menga, like many criminals before him, thought he was hiding behind a secure communications system. Instead, he created his own evidence trail that has led them straight to jail.

“The level that Menga operated at showed he clearly had an established list of criminal contacts, one which will have been built over several years under the radar, facilitated by the use of Encrochat.

“I hope this result shows that we remain committed to pursuing people who think they are above the law and believe they can evade justice. We will continue to target criminals like Menga by thoroughly examining any evidence and carrying out any necessary warrants across Greater Manchester.”