Six of the 14 people arrested in Singapore in what is being hailed as a major breakthrough in the battle against corruption in football are linked to ongoing European investigations, Interpol said today.
The global network's suspected mastermind was among the 12 men and two women taken into custody in police raids lasting 12 hours across Singapore, ending early Tuesday.
"Among the 14 persons who have been arrested six persons are linked to ongoing European investigations or prosecutions such as those coming out of Italy, Germany, Finland and Hungary as examples," Interpol, the police body based in Lyon, France, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "All 14 are Singaporean nationals."
The arrests are of "extraordinary" significance and took down "the world's largest match-fixing operation based in Singapore," the secretary general of Interpol, Ronald K Noble, said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
"The Singaporeans have been criticised, unfairly I believe, for not being serious about fighting match-fixing," Noble said on a visit to Ukraine. "In fact, they never received the evidence of match-fixing that would have allowed them to either prosecute in their own country or extradite individuals. ]
So what the Singaporeans did was they conducted their own investigation, working with Interpol, cooperating with (Interpol) member countries, from Italy, Hungary, Germany, Finland, et cetera. And they made their own investigations, targeted people for arrest who were engaged in match-fixing and made the arrests.
"Making an investigation that results in the arrest of the head and other members of one of the largest syndicates in the world won't end match-fixing, but it's a significant step.
What's significant is that the investigation in Singapore didn't just focus on the cases we already knew about originating out of Europe but also additional cases."
In Italy, the prosecutor leading an inquiry into international match-fixing said he would like to question the suspected ringleader.
"It's big news," Cremona prosecutor Roberto Di Martino told the AP. "It shows that our inquiry means something on an international level.
"Now we need to explore the diplomatic channels to see what we can do," Di Martino added. "I'm not sure if our treaties permit (extradition). Plus, these arrests appear to also be linked to their (Singapore's) own investigation.
Others have been arrested, too, including women, that don't appear to have anything to do with our inquiry. I think there are some elements from our inquiry involved, and some from theirs.
