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Police seize more Irish Olympic executives’ passports in Rio

The other names on the warrant include OCI officials Linda O’Reilly and Willie O’Brien.

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“Early this morning in Rio, Brazilian police arrived at the OCI offices in the Olympic village and at OCI accommodation outside of the village”, said the OCI in a statement. “Agents are conducting investigations since this morning which will continue until Tuesday”.

This is the latest revelation of the Olympic touting ticket fiasco.

Former Olympic Council of Ireland chief Pat Hickey has already been detained in the inquiry and is being held in Rio’s Bangu maximum security prison awaiting a court hearing.

Hickey is expected to appear before a judge on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee said on Sunday.

If the police decide not to press ahead with charges, Hickey will be free to leave the country.

Hickey, an IOC member, head of the Olympic Council of Ireland and the European Olympic Committees, was detained Wednesday and is accused of involvement in a ticket scam, ambush marketing and conspiracy over the sale of Rio Olympics tickets at inflated prices.

Mr Hickey is now being held in Bangu prison, along with Dubliner Thomas Mallon, as police investigate an alleged scheme that saw the OCI use authorised ticket reseller PRO10 as a front for Mallon’s THG, who are barred from doing business in Brazil following the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

The scandal has been mounting since the arrest on 5 August of Kevin Mallon, the Irish head of the THG hospitality company.

The trio, whose phones and laptops were taken by police, agreed to present themselves for questioning by police on Tuesday, the OCI said in an earlier statement.

A meeting of OCI executive committee members took place in Dublin, but it was not clear if Mr Delaney was in attendance.

Chief of the Civil Police Fraud Unit, Ricardo Barboza de Souza, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that police “completed a search and apprehension action this morning, in the rooms of integrants of the Olympic Council of Ireland”. Hickey has stepped aside from all Olympic roles until the investigation is concluded.

Hickey’s Rio-based solicitor Arthur Lavigne claimed he was being held illegally.

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“The investigation did not bring one single slight indication that Mr Hickey could be involved with the facts therein investigated, and his detention was required by the police authority under mere assumptions”.

OCI board set to discuss Rio ticket scandal