By Rodrigo Viga and Ossian Shine
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian police arrested Europe's top Olympic official in an early morning raid of his beachfront hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, in connection with an investigation into ticket touting at the Olympics.
The police said they had discovered evidence linking 71-year-old Irishman Pat Hickey to an international scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.
Authorities said that in addition to Hickey they issued arrest warrants for and were recommending charges against three executives of Dublin-based PRO10 Sports Management.
They allege PRO10 funneled tickets to another company, THG Sports, whose director was arrested earlier this week in Brazil. PRO10 and THG have denied wrongdoing. Hickey has not responded to calls for comment.
Hickey was detained at the hotel Windsor Marapendi near the Olympic Park and taken to a nearby hospital after his arrest - police said that was a precautionary measure based on what they said was Hickey's history of heart problems.
An online video, credited to ESPN, showed Hickey being apprehended and led away in a white bathrobe.
He later temporarily stepped down from his position as executive board member on the International Olympic Committee, president of the European Olympic Committee and vice-president of the Association of National Olympic Committees.
The Olympic Council of Ireland said Hickey, its president, was stepping aside from all his Olympic functions until the matter was fully resolved.
"Let's wait and see what the allegations regarding Mr Hickey are," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters. "We have full confidence in the system. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty."
Adams said the allegations concerned 1,000 tickets out of a total of 6.5 million that were made available for the Rio games.
Police have not questioned any other IOC officials, Adams said, adding that the body was ready to provide any assistance in the investigation to the authorities in Brazil.
Police want Hickey and the three PRO10 executives charged with illegal resale of tickets, criminal association and fraudulent marketing.
Under Brazilian law, only prosecutors can actually file the charges, and had yet to do so by late afternoon Wednesday.
Police said that only Hickey was in Brazil, while the other three did not travel to the country for the Games and were considered "fugitives".
PRO10, which says on its website it is the Irish authorized ticket reseller for the Games, said in a statement that it had always acted properly and had cooperated fully with Brazilian authorities.
TICKET VIGILANCE
Ticket touting is illegal in Brazil and police and prosecutors have stepped up their vigilance of the practice since the country has hosted the globe's two biggest sporting events, the 2014 World Cup and now the Olympics.
During the World Cup, police arrested high-level figures of the official Cup corporate hospitality provider for funneling tickets to touters. At that time, authorities estimated the touting ring was making 1 million reais ($310,000) per match.
Hickey was a member of the IOC's coordination commission for the Rio Games, the body in charge of overseeing preparations for the first Olympics held in South America.
His arrest comes after police last week detained a director of THG Sports, an international sports hospitality company, Kevin Mallon, and a translator employed by the company, alleging that they could have made 10 million reais ($3 million) from buying tickets and reselling them at a higher price.
A Brazilian judge on Monday ordered the arrest of four more THG Sports executives on accusations of fraudulent ticket sales at the Olympics.
THG has rejected the accusations against the company and Mallon, saying that more than 1,000 tickets seized by police were being held legally on behalf of PRO10 and criticizing local Olympic organizers.
THG Group is owned by Marcus Evans Group, which also controls English soccer club Ipswich Town.
Hickey is a former judoka and is honorary life president of the Irish Judo Federation. He has been head of the OCI since 1989. In 2015, he led the first European Games organized by the EOC in Baku, Azerbaijan.