Italian Police Arrest Suspect in International Soccer Fixing

Admir Suljic, 31, was apprehended at Milan’s Malpensa airport on arrival from Singapore, investigators said. He was taken to the northern city of Cremona, where he will be questioned by the prosecutors investigating more than 150 people in an international match-fixing case. The main charge against Mr. Suljic is criminal association targeted to international sports fraud, the officials said.

Mr. Suljic is thought to be an associate of Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean also known as Dan Tan, who has been implicated in suspected match-fixing cases dating back more than a decade.

The Italian authorities believe that Mr. Suljic, a Slovenian, and one of his fellow countrymen, Dino Lalic, have served as the syndicate’s main operators in Italy since at least 2008. According to prosecutors, Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic dealt directly with soccer players to manipulate the matches and enable illicit gambling. Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic stayed at the same hotel as the alleged boss of the syndicate, Mr. Tan, on several occasions; they also traveled with him in a car from Slovenia to Italy in 2009, the authorities said.

The announcement of Mr. Suljic’s arrest coincided with an Interpol conference on match-fixing Thursday in Kuala Lumpur. Ronald K. Noble, the American who leads Interpol, said in a statement that that law enforcement officials “must be given the legal framework to share information with a global impact in the midst of active investigations,” and that “the days of thinking only about the secrecy of the investigation within each individual jurisdiction are over.”

Mr. Noble did not mention Mr. Tan by name, but European law enforcement officials said earlier this month at a conference in The Hague that Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant for him, but have been thus far frustrated by Singapore’s refusal to extradite him.

Mr. Noble said at the conference that the arrest of Mr. Suljic was “important because the world believes that law enforcement can’t do anything to take down this criminal organization,” The Associated Press reported.

But the Singapore police appeared Thursday to be signaling a willingness to act, saying in a statement they were sending four senior officers to the 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 and share available information we have with these affected countries.”

Officials from Europol and other European law enforcement bodies said on Feb. 4 that they had identified 680 matches worldwide that appeared to have been fixed in the last few years, including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League contests.

Gaia Pianigiani reported from Rome, and David Jolly from Paris.

Italian Police Arrest Suspect in International Soccer Fixing