{"id":427696,"date":"2026-01-21T12:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427696\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:21:16","slug":"czech-mma-fighter-vemola-among-four-accused-of-international-cocaine-smuggling-operation-brno-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427696\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech MMA Fighter Vemola Among Four Accused of International Cocaine Smuggling Operation \u2013 Brno Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Czech mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Karlos Vemola is one of five people arrested and charged since December for being members of a large-scale international cocaine smuggling operation, which transported drugs hidden in trucks to Britain and the Czech Republic, the national anti-drug police centre told CTK yesterday.<\/p>\n

A professional competitor since 2008, Vemola was the first UFC fighter from the Czech Republic. His representatives have denied allegations that he played an organizing role in criminal activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn April 2020, a truck with a trailer left the Czech Republic,\u201d said the centre\u2019s spokeswoman Lucie Smoldasova. \u201cIt was headed for the Netherlands and then on to the British port of Dover, where an inspection of the truck carrying children\u2019s toys revealed 50 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a compartment behind the driver\u2019s cab.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the group once smuggled cocaine even to Russia.<\/p>\n

The police allege that Vemola, the Czech organiser of the criminal group, cooperated with a foreign national he knew from combat sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May 2020, the group organized the smuggling of another 37 kilograms of cocaine from the Netherlands to Britain in a similar manner. A month later, however, the foreign cooperative was detained and charged by British police. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 240 kilogrammes of cocaine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smoldasova said the police discovered 34 kilos of cocaine at the home of the organiser of the group in the Czech Republic. The man was also preparing a shipment of another 120 kilograms of cocaine from South America, which the group wanted to sell abroad and in the Czech Republic, she added.<\/p>\n

See also<\/p>\n

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According to Smoldasova, three members of the group remain in custody, while two are being investigated by the police. Vemola was released on bail on Monday. He is not allowed to go abroad and will be supervised by a probation officer. If convicted, he faces up to 18 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Vemola\u2019s media team said the wrestler never played an organizing role in a group committing criminal activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe emphasize that it is not clear from the resolution on the basis of which criminal proceedings were initiated against Karel Vemola, what evidence there is to prove his criminal activity. Karel Vemola himself strongly denies that he was in any way involved in the criminal activity of which he is accused,\u201d Ales Rataj, a member of the fighter\u2019s media team, told CTK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Czech mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Karlos Vemola is one of five people arrested and charged since December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-427696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}