Brazilian police on Tuesday detained Pele’s son Edinho at his home in Sao Paulo state following his money laundering conviction, authorities said.
Edinho, full name Edson Cholbi Nascimento, once played in goal for his father’s former club Santos. But at the end of May a court gave him a 33-year jail sentence for laundering money for drug traffickers.
A spokeswoman for Brazil’s secretariat for public safety told AFP the 43-year-old, who may appeal the verdict, had been handed over to the authorities.
Edinho was found to have had links with a drug cartel led by Ronaldo “Naldinho” Duarte Barsotti.
He admitted buying drugs from the cartel but denied working with the network.
Judge Susana Pereira da Silva ordered the same sentence to three other defendents in the case at Praia Grande, a small coastal town near Santos, and ordered the confiscation of all property seized in the police operation against them, including about 100 cars.
Police began investigating the case in 2005.
Edinho had an unspectacular career at Santos, unlike his fabled father, considered one of the greatest players ever and who won World Cups in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
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