The suspect, Admir Suljic, 31, a former player from Slovenia, was taken into custody early Thursday at Malpensa Airport, near Milan, after arriving from Singapore, investigators said. He was taken to Cremona, where he will be questioned by the prosecutors investigating more than 150 people in the case.
The charge against Suljic is criminal association with the intention of committing international sports fraud, the officials said.
Officials from Europol and other European law enforcement agencies said at a news conference in The Hague on Feb. 4 that they had identified 680 matches worldwide that appeared to have been fixed over the past few years, including in World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.
Interpol said that Suljic’s arrest was made possible by a tip from the Singapore police that Suljic had boarded the plane. Interpol then relayed that tip to the Italian authorities. Suljic, the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, or international arrest warrant, had been sought by the international law enforcement organization last year under Operation Infra-Red, a program “to locate and arrest serious long-term international fugitives.”
The Italian authorities disputed that characterization, saying that Suljic had approached them first, through his lawyer, essentially surrendering himself.
Suljic is believed to be an associate of Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean also known as Dan Tan, who has been implicated in possible match-fixing cases going back more than a decade.
It was perhaps the biggest breakthrough in the case since Wilson Raj Perumal, also an associate of Tan, was arrested in Finland for bribing players and convicted in 2011.
In a statement Thursday, the police in Singapore said that Tan “is currently assisting Singapore authorities.”
The case has turned an awkward spotlight on Singapore, a city-state with a reputation for law and order. Law enforcement officials said that Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant for Tan on behalf of European prosecutors, but that they had been frustrated by Singapore’s refusal to extradite him.
It was not immediately clear if Tan’s help had played a role in Suljic’s arrest. The Singaporean authorities did not say whether Tan was being detained, or whether they were now prepared to extradite him.
They did not respond to a request for comment.
But the Singapore police did appear Thursday to be signaling greater cooperation, saying in a separate statement that they were sending four senior officers to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. The officers will seek access to evidence, witnesses and suspects involved in match-fixing cases, and will explore “avenues to offer our assistance.”
The Italian authorities believe that Suljic, a Slovene, and one of his fellow countrymen, Dino Lalic, have served as the syndicate’s main operators in Italy since at least 2008. According to the prosecutors, Suljic and Lalic dealt directly with soccer players to manipulate matches.
They stayed at the same hotel as Tan, the apparent boss of the match-fixing network, on several occasions, and they also traveled with him by car from Slovenia to Italy in 2009, the authorities said.
Suljic retired as a player in 2009 after playing for the top division Slovene clubs Rudar Velenje and Nafta Lendava as well as for lower tier ones in Hungary and Austria, Reuters reported.
The announcement of Suljic’s arrest coincided with an Interpol conference on match-fixing Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a statement, Ronald K. Noble, the American who leads Interpol, called for law enforcement officials to be “given the legal framework to share information with a global impact in the midst of active investigations,” and he said that “the days of thinking only about the secrecy of the investigation within each individual jurisdiction are over.”
Gaia Pianigiani reported from Rome, and David Jolly from Paris.
Italian Police Arrest Man in Soccer Match-Fixing Inquiry
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