Ex-UFC fighter Rob Broughton sentenced to over 8 years in jail after acting as ‘enforcer’ for drug ring

Former UFC heavyweight Rob Broughton will be spending the next eight and a half years in prison after he was sentenced in the United Kingdom for his role in a drug ring that involved millions in cash and cocaine.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Broughton was arrested in connection with a criminal ring run by brothers Alan and John Tobin, who reportedly supplied huge amounts of drugs to various gangs around England. While their primary business was cocaine, the drug ring also dealt in heroin, cannabis and ketamine.

Broughton was convicted after he served as the “muscle” and an “enforcer” for the Tobin brothers as he transported large amounts of cash and collected debts from people who owed them money. Broughton has moved an estimated £30 million in cash — over $41 million in U.S. dollars —while also lending out his services to Anthony and Leon Cullen, who led a “heavily armed drug gang” in England.

The drug ring ran between 2016 and 2020 with police finally stopping a massive shipment of cocaine reportedly valued at around £20 million. While Broughton didn’t have direct interaction with the drugs, he did “enforce unpaid debts” as well as move money around for the drug ring.

Broughton confessed to his role in the drug running operation but despite his attorney’s best efforts to classify his crimes as money laundering, the judge in the case did not agree.

Ultimately, Broughton was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison with Judge Garrett Byrne adding “I’ve no doubt you have a keen sense of letting your family down and I hope when you’re released you have their best interests uppermost in your mind.”

Broughton fought in the UFC three times between 2010 and 2011 while earning a 1-2 record overall. He last competed in 2015 after spending much of his career training out of the legendary Wolfslair Gym, which is the same academy where notable fighters such as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Cheick Kongo previously called home.