Spanish police announced this Tuesday (11) the arrest of 11 people who operated two networks to defraud dozens of foreign families, in particular Brazilian ones, with offers to make their children “elite professional soccer players” in exchange for thousands of dollars. of euros.
The two criminal groups, independently of each other, managed soccer schools that recruited high-income young people from abroad with “false expectations of becoming outstanding professional players”, with offers of accommodation and processing documentation for a residence permit in Spain. , the police said in a statement.
For this, families needed to make a first payment of 5,000 euros (27,500 reais) and then pay between 1,500 and 1,700 euros (between 8,200 and 9,300 reais) monthly.
“The two organizations left the young people in deplorable conditions during the 90 days they stayed in the country as tourists, as immigration procedures were not admitted or were denied, which forced the deceived young people to return to their countries,” explained the police. .
The security force began the investigation after receiving a complaint from a player who was the victim of fraud at a football school in Granada (Andalusia, south).
Investigators found “30 young foreigners from various origins, mostly Brazilians, aged between 16 and 23 years old”, housed in two houses rented by a football school.
At the other school, also in Granada, the police found 40 young people, also mostly from Brazil, staying in the house of one of the principals.
In both cases, the youths were “in conditions of overcrowding, with little food,” the statement said.
Immigration processes to regularize the situation of young people “always ended up not being admitted for processing or denied, because in almost all cases the documentation presented was incomplete or out of date”, according to the police.
