He was caught red-card-handed.
Police arrested a soccer referee in the middle of match in Brazil and hauled him away in handcuffs as shocked players and fans looked on.
Wild video footage showed Ederson Carlos da Silva, 38, who is accused of being involved in a drug-trafficking ring, getting busted during the amateur soccer match Sunday in Guarujá.
Just before officers took him into custody, da Silva was seen running up to player to issue him a yellow card.
With his back turned the sidelines, cops donning bulletproof vests stormed the field.
São Paulo Civil Police chief in Guarujá, Glaucus Silva, told Brazilian news outlet G1 that they were able to track down da Silva because he was often posting on social media.
‘He is a person who has a very active social life, so he was someone who was already on the radar,’ Glaucus said.
The arrest came as part of an investigation into a drug-trafficking network in the region that caught the attention of authorities in November 2024, after a truck transporting 450 kilos of cocaine was stopped in the city of São Paulo.
Ederson da Carlos Silva was seen issuing a player a yellow card as police ran onto the field and arrested him on Sunday in Guarujá, Brazil
Police say that da Silva was being investigated for his role in a drug-trafficking network that supplied cocaine throughout the Brazilian state of São Paulo
Brazilian authorities were unaware that that da Silva was refereeing amateur soccer games
Authorities arrested the driver and a passenger, and then learned that da Silva was in charge of the criminal organization’s logistics, according to Eduardo Camargo, the chief of the Narcotics Investigations Police Station.
‘He used some houses rented by the criminal organization to store this drug, which was then distributed,’ said Eduardo Lima, the chief of the Narcotics Investigations Police Station, which is under the State Department for the Prevention and Repression of Drug Trafficking.
Lima said that they had no idea da Silva was working as a referee.
‘From his record and everything we were able to raise, he worked as a foreman in a company,’ Lima said.
‘We didn’t have the information that he refereed in football matches. As we did not locate him, he was wanted and then the people of Guarujá managed to arrest him.’
Authorities are still searching for six other suspects, according to reports.
