Pele's son could be murdered in jail
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-16 13:39

Brazilian authorities fear former goalkeeper Edson Cholbi do Nascimento "Edinho," son of soccer legend Pele, and arrested for his supposed links to drug traffic, be assassinated in jail by members of a rival ring, according to local reports on Wednesday.

Soccer legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pele, cries during a news conference in a police station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Tuesday, June 7, 2005. Edson Cholbi Nascimento, the son of Pele, was arrested Monday in an operation to dismantle a drug gang in southeastern Brazil, police said. Nascimento, 35, was arrested along with some 50 other people after an eight-month investigation into a cocaine trafficking operation in the port city of Santos, some 44 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Sao Paulo, said Antonio Carlos Silveira, a spokesman for Sao Paulo's state police. [AP]

The prison authorities until now have not ordered taking Pele's son from the police station, where he has been kept for nine days, to a common prison, fearing he could be assassinated as part of a vendetta.

This was mentioned after the police intercepted telephone call from members of a jail mafia, supposedly threatening to kill the members of the criminal organization with which Edinho had ties.

Edinho, goalkeeper of Santos in the 1990s, was arrested last week on Monday along with 51 other individuals in an operation against a drug-trafficking ring in the cities of Santos, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The Brazilian police said it has recordings showing Edinho had links with pusher known as Naldinho, accused of leading such criminal organization.

Naldinho, who also was arrested, would be the leader of a ring that is the rival of the group known as the First Capital Command (PCC), one of the biggest criminal organizations of Brazil, operating in the jails of Sao Paulo state's prisons.

According to police sources cited by daily O Dia, PCC members, whose telephone conversations were recorded, supposedly threatened to kill Naldinho and Pele's son.

Although Edinho has admitted he did wrong to relate himself with pushers, and accepted to spend three years in jail, his lawyers claim evidence against his client is not enough to prove his ties with Naldinho's band.

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