A massive tennis match-fixing ring has reportedly been busted after Spanish police arrested 15 people and investigated 68 more, including 28 professional tennis players, as part of a large-scale investigation.
According to reports, one of the players under investigation competed at last year's US Open.
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EU police agency Europol report that 11 house searches had been carried out in Spain in which 167,000 euros (roughly $192,000) in cash were seized, along with a shotgun. Additionally, more than 50 electronic devices, credit cards, five luxury vehicles and documentation related to the case were also seized and forty-two bank accounts have also been frozen.
"The suspects bribed professional players to guarantee predetermined results and used the identities of thousands of citizens to bet on the pre-arranged games," Europol said in a statement.
"A criminal group of Armenian individuals used a professional tennis player, who acted as the link between the gang and the rest of the criminal group."
According to BBC, the Civil Guard added that "once they got the bribe, the Armenian members went to the places where the matches were being played to make sure the player went through with what they had agreed, making the most of their imposing size".
The match-fixing organization had reportedly been operating since at least February 2017, while Europol said at least 97 ITF Futures and Challenger matches had been fixed.
