There were extraordinary scenes in Brazilian football at the weekend as a referee was arrested and frogmarched away by police in the middle of a match.
Far more accustomed to dishing out the punishment himself, Ederson Carlos da Silva, 38, was given his marching orders in front of stunned onlookers at the amateur clash in Guaruja.
Da Silva did manage to brandish one last yellow card for a particularly robust challenge in Sunday’s contest before receiving a taste of his own medicine as local police officers stormed the field of play.
The official was immediately slapped in a pair of handcuffs, with the cops in question fully armed and donning visible bullet-proof vests at the Avenida Artur Paixao stadium, in the Vila Ligya neighborhood.
It has since emerged that Da Silva is under investigation for his alleged role in a large a drug-trafficking network accused of supplying cocaine across Sao Paulo.
Brazilian news outlet G1 report that the syndicate first came to the attention of police following the discovery of 450kg of cocaine in the city last November.
According to Eduardo Camargo Lima, the chief of the Narcotics Investigations Police Station, Da Silva oversaw the ‘logistics of storing narcotics for the criminal organisation’.
It’s believed six other suspects are still at large and the search is ongoing to determine their whereabouts.
Authorities had been completely unaware that Da Silva was working as a part-time referee in amateur football.
‘He [Da Silva] used some houses rented by the criminal organisation to store this drug, which was then distributed,’ Lima added.
‘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.’
Da Silva’s online presence is said to have aided police in bolstering their case as part of ‘Operation Santo Amaro’.
‘He is a person who has a very active social life,’ Sao Paulo Civil Police chief in Guaruja, Glaucus Silva, explained.
‘He was someone who was already on the radar.’
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