Olympic Council of Ireland officials have passports seized by Brazilian police

Brazilian police seized passports of Irish Olympic officials on Sunday to keep them in Rio de Janeiro for questioning, as authorities intensified their probe into possible ticket scalping involving Ireland’s top Olympic official, Patrick Hickey.

The embattled Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) was hit by new police raids in Rio on Sunday before it met in Dublin for crisis talks on ex-President Pat Hickey’s arrest.

Mallon was detained for illegally reselling tickets at inflated prices and faces charges of false marketing and Carnieri was accused of false marketing.

The probe has already led to the detention of International Olympic Committee member Pat Hickey, who is being held at Rio’s notorious Bangu prison.

Another Irishman, Kevin Mallon and interpreter Barbara Carnieri was arrested earlier this month for allegedly being in possession of over 1,000 tickets for the Olympic Games that they were not authorised to sell.

“Mr Hickey will have his first hearing by a judge next Tuesday”, Bach said Sunday on the sidelines of an IOC executive meeting in Rio at the end of the Olympic Games.

Police said they have also issued arrest warrants for three PRO10 executives.

The OCI’s Dublin-based public relations agency said about three Irish personnel had passports, phones and laptops seized.

Rio civil police said in a statement they had started an operation on Sunday linked to their probe into an global ticket touting ring, but declined to provide further details. They agreed to do so.

“The OCI had an allocation of unused official tickets in their offices, which had been made available for athletes’ families and friends”, the OCI said.