Soccer player Diego Costa, investigated in a police operation on irregular gambling
The Spanish-Brazilian forward Diego Costa, from Athletic Mineiro, He was the subject of a police operation this Thursday that investigates various irregularities committed through a gambling website, according to the "ge" portal of the Globo group.
The Federal Police of Sergipe, the Brazilian state where Costa was born, carried out an operation against the "alleged practice of gambling exploitation, money laundering, currency evasion and criminal organization" around the betting house "ESPORTENET", as indicated in a note.
The investigation focuses on the owners of that platform, the financial operators and the "supposed financier of that criminal network", that he is "a soccer player", whose identity was not disclosed.
According to "ge" that footballer would be Diego Costa, who has played for Atlético Mineiro since last August, after terminate your contract with the Atletico Madrid Spanish by the end of 2020.
In the action this Thursday, the agents have fulfilled seven search and search warrants in the Brazilian states of Sergipe, Bahia (northeast) and Sao Paulo (southeast).
One of those records was fulfilled in Lizard, Costa's hometown, according to the Federal Police, which did not disclose the exact location of the proceedings or the identity of those investigated.
The Brazilian authorities indicated that in the first phase of the operation, which occurred on March 3 of this year, documents and computer equipment were seized that allowed us to go further in the investigation.
Based on these tests it was possible to identify "other betting platforms" used by the group, which acted together with "companies" and other people, to "launder money and evade currency," according to the police note.
The participation of money changers, who helped the "criminal organization in the process of evasion of foreign currency", and of a "player of soccer", that, "supposedly, he is the financier of the criminal network", according to the same source.
This new phase of the one baptized as "Operation Distraction" is concentrated in the "process of currency evasion, with focus on money changers and in the financier "of the betting website, which according to" ge "is Diego Costa.
Costa, who is currently injured, signed a contract with him Athletic Mineiro, current leader of the Brazilian Championship, until December 2022.
The striker, also a former player of the Chelsea English, he was free on the market since at the end of 2020 he decided to end his career at Atlético de Madrid, where he lived his best years as a footballer.
