When the drugs police slapped the handcuffs on him in Naples last month, Anthony de Avila was wearing the colors of America de Cali, the Colombian club where he became a star.
The former international’s arrest and conviction in Italy should be shocking, but it is just the latest chapter in an old and sordid romance between soccer and drug trafficking in Colombia.
Nicknamed “Pitufo,” Spanish for “Smurf,” because he is just 1.54m tall, De Avila was a class act on the field, playing 54 times for Colombia.
Photo: AFP
He spent most of his club career at America and remains the club’s all-time top scorer with 208 goals.
However, he was arrested on Sept. 20 in a piazza in the center of Naples in a scarlet club shirt.
“The police had been alerted with information indicating the presence in the city of South Americans who had come to meet local traffickers,” said Davide della Cioppa, the police officer who coordinated the arrest.
“He claimed to be a tourist, but when asked where he was staying, he replied that he was staying at the [subway] station,” which aroused the suspicions of the uniformed officers, Della Cioppa said.
After taking him to a police station, Italian authorities discovered that De Avila, 58, had been sentenced to prison in 2004 for drug trafficking.
The former striker “claims he is innocent and did not know he was convicted and wanted,” Fabrizio de Maio, his lawyer, told El Pais, a newspaper based in Cali, Colombia.
Yet the lawyer knows that his client is in a tight corner and that avoiding a 12-year prison sentence amounts to “mission impossible.”
“We are finding out what Anthony’s situation is like at the moment to see how we can help him,” Tulio Gomez, America’s main shareholder, told El Pais.
In Colombia, the profits from the illegal trade on cocaine have penetrated soccer, the equestrian world, beauty pageants and election campaigns.
In the 1980s and 1990s, owning a team “was an asset” for some capos and a tool of popularity for others, said journalist Ignacio Gomez, coauthor of the book Los Amos del Juego (The Masters of the Game). “It was a natural laundry” for a business that moves large sums of cash.
America de Cali was included in 1999 in a US list of companies connected to drug trafficking.
Another Colombian international Jhon Viafara, a midfielder in the Once Caldas team who won the Copa Libertadores in 2004, is serving 135 months in prison in the US for drug trafficking.
Viafara was accused of being part of an international network linked to the Clan del Golfo, the country’s largest drug gang.
In the 1980s, brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela headed the Cali Cartel, which was linked to America de Cali. They were captured in 1995 and convicted in the US for drug trafficking.
The Cali Cartel became the world’s leading cocaine distributor after the 1993 death of rival Pablo Escobar, the kingpin of the Medellin Cartel — and backer of Atletico Nacional.
Both teams acquired “a significant collection of players,” Gomez said.
In 1997, two years after the Cali drug lords had been captured, De Avila acknowledged his debt to them.
“I want to dedicate this victory to some people who are deprived of their freedom,” De Avila said after scoring the goal that gave Colombia a 1-0 victory over Ecuador that all but cemented their France 1998 World Cup qualification.
“I think there is no need to name names, but with much love and humility I dedicate it to them, Gilberto and Miguel,” De Avila added.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS