A football match in Brazil was interrupted over the weekend when police officers wearing bulletproof vests stormed onto the pitch and arrested the referee. Fans and players could hardly believe the incredible scenes as the official was hurried away in handcuffs by a group of cops.
Surreal footage starts with referee Ederson Carlos da Silva brandishing a yellow card after a rash tackle in a lower-league Brazilian clash, with fans chatting and drums banging in the background. Moments later, a whole clan of police officers donning protective clothing snuck up behind the ref’s back and swiftly apprehended him. Players scrambled out of the way as Da Silva was frogmarched off the field of play by the authorities.
The 38-year-old stands accused of being part of a drug-trafficking ring. Glaucus Silva, the Sao Paulo Civil Police chief in Gauruja, where the match was being played, said that Da Silva’s social media activity allowed cops to track him down.
Silva told Brazilian news outlet g1: “He is a person who has a very active social life, so he was someone who was already on the radar.”
An investigation into a drug-trafficking network was ramped up by authorities in November last year after a truck transporting 450kg of cocaine was seized in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, according to The Daily Mail.
The driver of the truck and the passenger were arrested on the spot. Police then determined that Da Silva was suspected of heading up the drug-trafficking network’s logistics, according to the chief of the Narcotics Investigations Police Station, Eduardo Camargo. Police are still on the hunt for six other suspects, according to local reports.
Another prominent figure in the Narcotics Investigations Police Station, Eduardo Lima, provided extra details about Da Silva, including the fact that police had no idea from official records that he was working as a football referee.
“He used some houses rented by the criminal organization to store this drugs, which were then distributed,” said Lima. “From his record and everything we were able to raise, he worked as a foreman in a company.
“We didn’t have the information that he refereed in football matches. As we did not locate him, he was wanted and then the people of Guaruja managed to arrest him.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk