INTERPOL on Monday issued a new international arrest warrant for former Colombian soccer player Freddy Rincon.
The 46-year-old renowned soccer star is wanted by Panamanian authorities. Rincon is charged with collaborating with the imprisoned Colombian drug kingpin, Pablo Rayo Montaño, and is also suspected of money laundering.
Colombian police seized items from several of the former athlete’s properties in the western Colombian department of Valle del Cauca.
The initial scandal broke in 2006 when Montaño was arrested in Brazil. The famed soccer star denied having any links to the druglord but later recanted, saying that he and Montaño were both born in the western port city of Buenaventura and knew each other as kids. Rincon later admitted to investing money in one of Montaño’s Panama-based companies.
Rincon and 96 others were originally implicated in a criminal investigation in Colombia and Panama. Of the original 96, 20 were acquitted during a preliminary hearing in April of 2011. The other 76, including Rincon, are still awaiting trial.
