Police crack down on ticket sales in Brasília.

Alex Rodrigues, Reporter for Agência Brasil - The World Cup ended yesterday (13), but, like Rio de Janeiro, in the Federal District the Civil Police promises to continue investigating the actions of foreigners suspected of being part of a criminal scheme involving the illegal sale of World Cup tickets.

"Even after the World Cup is over, the investigations will continue," Delegate Jefferson Lisboa, from the Coordination for the Repression of Crimes against Consumers, Tax Order and Fraud (Corf), told Agência Brasil.

"We already have enough evidence to prove that this is, at the very least, a criminal association scheme – where three or more people come together to commit a crime. We have no doubt about that. What we are doing now is trying to gather evidence to prove that it is not only that, but a criminal organization, in which each member has a predefined role," the police chief explained. The Civil Police are investigating how the suspects obtained so many original tickets and whether there is any connection between the scheme investigated in the federal capital and the events reported in Rio de Janeiro.

On June 23rd, police in Brasília arrested 11 people near the Mané Garrincha National Stadium for selling tickets to the Brazil vs. Cameroon match. In addition to seven Brazilians who, according to the police chief, were offering counterfeit tickets, two Dutch nationals, one Polish national, and one British national were also detained. At the time, the police chief stated that he had found no connection between the Brazilians (mostly from São Paulo) and the foreigners, who were offering genuine, nominative tickets at prices ranging from R$ 800 to R$ 1,5.

Only the Briton and the Pole had more than 350 original tickets in their possession. "This caught our attention. How did they get that many tickets?" pondered the police chief, who did not give further details of the investigation, which was launched after the arrests. A few days after the game between Brazil and Cameroon, police in Brasília detained a Portuguese man with 50 original tickets and two Turks with 140 tickets. "The two claim to work for a European website that practices a kind of ticket scalping. People buy tickets through the website and the tickets are delivered throughout Brazil."

The arrests in Brasília occurred weeks before the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro made public that it had already been investigating an illegal ticket sales scheme – an investigation that, thanks to wiretaps authorized by the court, resulted in the arrest of 11 people, including the director of the company Match, Raymond Whelan, who only today (14) appeared before the Justice system, after having been declared a fugitive. Match is a company authorized by the International Federation of Football (FIFA) to sell tickets for the World Cup games.

"If we deem it necessary, we will request the arrests of individuals we conclude are involved in fraud or currency exchange. If it involves a foreigner who has already left the country, they may be arrested by Interpol in any country that has an extradition treaty with Brazil," the police chief added.

The foreign nationals detained in Brasília are Dutch nationals Ramaekers Franciscus Leonardus, 46, and Onno Johan Willem, 24; Polish national Tomas Kamil Jablonski, 26; British national Tariq Saeed Khan, 32; Portuguese national José Daniel Rodrigues de Caires, 29; and Turkish nationals Serkan Oztorun, 26, and Keremcan Baser, 26. Agência Brasil was unable to confirm whether all have been released by the courts to face charges while at liberty during the investigation.