Former Barcelona and Brazil forward Ronaldinho was arrested in Paraguay on Friday for attempting to enter the country with a forged passport.
Gilberto Fleitas, the head of the investigations unit of the Paraguayan police, said Ronaldinho and his brother were taken into custody just hours after a judge refused to ratify a prosecutor’s proposal for an alternative punishment.
“The detention order has been carried out,” Fleitas told Reuters.
Ronaldinho and his brother Roberto Assis, who is also his business manager, are expected to face a judge on later Saturday who will decide whether to free the pair or keep them in custody while investigations continue.
Their unexpected arrest came just hours after the two brothers appeared set to leave the landlocked South American nation and draw a line under their tumultuous stay that began on Wednesday when they were questioned by police after presenting falsified passports on arrival at the Asuncion airport.
Ronaldinho and his brother deny wrongdoing and say they thought the passports were a courtesy gesture.
Federico Delfino, a prosecutor investigating the case, said he believed the two had been tricked into accepting the passports on arrival and recommended that because they had cooperated with officials they be released after paying an alternative punishment.