Former UFC star admits to smuggling a kilo of cocaine through an airport for a Colombian cartel

Daily Mail​

27-04-2025

Former UFC middleweight Ian Heinisch has opened up about a stunning chapter from his past, detailing his harrowing experience working as a drug mule for a Colombian cartel.
Heinisch, who retired from the UFC in 2023, made a lot of bad decisions in his younger days that led him to doing a stint in a Spanish prison.
The 36-year-old American recently recounted an experience from his high-stakes life as a drug mule that eventually led to him being locked up and transforming himself into a professional athlete.
On one fateful trip, Heinisch was stopped at Bogota, Colombia, with a kilogram of cocaine in his stomach and faced a heart-stopping few minutes with security.
'About four trips into this, this guy stops me at the airport, throws out a badge, he's like, "Who are you?" I'm like ... "No Comprende, sir," and he's like "secret police, sit down," and I sit down next to this beautiful chick and this sketchy looking dude,' Heinisch told Soft White Underbelly.
'I asked the girl, I'm like "Hey, what are we doing here?" And she's like, "The X-ray." I'm sitting with a kilo of cocaine in my stomach and I'm like dude, I'm looking at a long time in prison - and now it's in Columbia.'
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'The Colombians, every time we'd wrap this cocaine, there was a shiny paper that they put on it.
'They said, "This is what's gonna pass the X-ray," and I was like, "Nooo." In my mind, I was like hoping it was true, but my mind was like, "They're just telling me this so I feel better."
'So I went in this room, put my hands up in this big machine ... I've never been so nervous in my life. I walk over they said "Have a good day."
'I fingerprinted, I signed, and got smashed with a shot of adrenaline that I could never replicate - even in fighting.'
The MMA star couldn't believe that he managed to get through the X-ray machine without getting caught.
'It was like that level of winning a fight,' Heinisch explained.
'I'm just like, "I can't believe I just walked out of that."
'...And it was actually bad, because we started to get cocky.'
The fighter's luck eventually ran out in 2011, with Heinisch getting caught and going on to serve over three years in prison.
Heinisch, now happily married, says the whole affair helped him to become a better person and find his purpose in life.
'I feel the best is yet to come,' he said.