Italian police arrested a fugitive Slovenian associate of alleged soccer match-fixing kingpin Tan Seet Eng yesterday after he flew in from Singapore to hand himself over, they said in a statement.
The man, identified as 31-year-old Admir Suljic, arrived at Milan’s Malpensa airport in the early hours to find police waiting for him after a tip-off by Singaporean authorities.
Police said in a statement that Suljic, who is accused of “criminal association aimed at sporting fraud,” had bought a one-way ticket with the intention of surrendering to the authorities.
He had been on the run since December 2011 and is considered a “key element” in Italy’s “Last Bet” probe into match-fixing between 2009 and 2011. Police said Suljic would be taken to a prison in the city of Cremona.
“His direct involvement in the international criminal group, made of Singapore nationals and people from the Balkans, has emerged from the investigation,” the police statement said.
Italian prosecutors have accused Tan, also known as Dan Tan, of heading an organization to fix soccer matches worldwide and Italian police have issued an arrest warrant for him.
A joint-inquiry by Europol, the European anti-crime agency, and national prosecutors identified about 680 suspicious matches including qualifying games for the World Cup and European Championships, and for Europe’s Champions League.
Interpol chief Ronald Noble, speaking at a conference in Kuala Lumpur on combating match-fixing, said Suljic was part of Singapore national Tan’s network.
The international police body has declined to say if it has declared Tan an internationally wanted person, but an Italian judicial source said Interpol had pooled together investigations launched by authorities in countries including Italy, Germany, Spain and Turkey.
Singapore says he is not wanted there, but that it is working with European authorities investigating the syndicate.
Singaporean police said yesterday that a team of four officers would be sent to Interpol within the next two weeks to assist in match-fixing investigations and that the city-state remained “committed” in the fight against match-fixing.
Singapore allows suspects to be sent only to countries with which it has an extradition treaty. Germany has such a treaty with Singapore but Italy, which made the original complaint about match-fixers manipulating Italian games, does not.
Noble, who had previously told Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper it would be unfortunate if Singapore’s “well-earned anti-crime reputation” suffered from the allegations, said he did not agree with criticism that Singapore is not doing enough to fight matchfixing.
“I think the case I told you about, the case that is unfolding right now, makes it clear that Singaporeans like European Union investigators and judges are required to follow their law,” he said.
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