The two were taken off their flight from Brazil to the U.
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Detective Alexandre Braga said Bentz and Conger had their passports “temporarily confiscated by a court order”.
A Brazilian police official said that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, two of the swimmers who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States on Wednesday, claimed that Lochte fabricated the story, according to ESPN.
The AP said the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak about an ongoing investigation.
U.S. Olympic officials say Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, who were pulled from a Houston-bound flight by federal agents Wednesday night at Rio’s worldwide airport, were released after being detained for almost four hours by Brazilian authorities. Some of the swimmers pushed on the lavatory door and broke it. A security guard appeared and confronted them. A new video reportedly shows the four USA swimmers getting in a fight with a gas station security guard, who allegedly pulled a gun on them because they damaged a bathroom, on the same night they claim they were ‘robbed.’ Something’s fishy here… And the swimmers’ taxi was not actually pulled over by the thieves; rather it had stopped at a gas station so the swimmers could use the bathroom, Lochte said. “They gave him some money and left”.
The attorney for American swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz says they were removed from an outbound flight in Brazil, and are being held by local authorities until they answer questions related to a recently alleged robbery of them and their teammates.
Because there were so many inconsistencies in the Olympians’ stories, authorities put out a search warrant and banned them from leaving Brazil earlier this week. That led to news coverage of the incident and prompted police attention.
The USOC issued a statement on Thursday, saying that the three swimmers remaining in Rio were “cooperating with authorities” and that they are scheduling a time to speak further with them.
Lochte, however, had already returned to the United States on Monday.
“These kids tried to have fun, they tried to represent their country to the best of their abilities”, the Rio 2016 spokesman, Mário Andrada, told reporters, without elaborating. “Sometimes you take actions that you later regret”, Andrada said. ABC News also reports that the swimmers offered 100 Brazilian reals () and to compensate for the damage.
Prosecutors have also said that CCTV footage caught the swimmers returning to the Olympic Village laughing and smiling, and exhibiting no behaviours characteristic of people who had just undergone the shock of a mugging at gunpoint.
A lawyer for both Conger and Benz noted Thursday that the pair won’t be allowed to leave Brazil until they offer their testimony to authorities. ABC News reported that Lochte is already back in the us, according to officials, but Feigen was still in Brazil as of Wednesday, and a judge ordered that his passport be seized.
Police say they have found little evidence so far to support their claims, and that the swimmers were unable to provide key details in interviews. She said investigators needed more time to determine if the swimmers filed a false police report. Instead, he said all four swimmers were at a gas station when they were robbed.
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A Brazilian judge ordered a search and seizure warrant for Lochte and Feigen as well as the confiscation of their passports.
