MADRID — The Spanish police say 28 professional tennis players, including one who participated in last year’s United States Open, have been linked to an international organized group accused of fixing matches.
Authorities said on Thursday that the players had tainted results after taking bribes from an Armenian ring that was dismantled in October. Fifteen people were arrested at the time, including some of the tennis players.
Eleven houses were raided, and the police seized luxury vehicles, a shotgun, credit cards and 167,000 euros, or about $192,000.
It was not clear whether the player who took part in the U.S. Open was among those detained.
The police accused the Spaniard Marc Fornell-Mestres, whose highest career singles ranking was 236th in 2007, of acting as the link between players and the Armenian ring that bribed them for betting purposes.
No other names were immediately disclosed by the authorities.
Fornell-Mestres, 36, was provisionally suspended from professional tennis at the end of last year, according to the Tennis Integrity Unit, which said the suspension was related to an investigation into “alleged breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.” Fornell-Mestres was ranked 1,007th in singles and 772nd in doubles at the end of 2018.
It was a warning by the Tennis Integrity Unit in 2017 that prompted the Spanish authorities to begin the investigation.
The police said the organized group had bribed the players to guarantee predetermined results and used the identities of thousands of citizens to place international bets on the matches. The authorities said members of the Armenian ring had attended the matches to ensure that the players complied with what had been previously agreed on.
The European Union law enforcement agency Europol, which supported the operation led by the Spanish authorities, said at least 97 matches from the lower-tier Futures and Challenger tournaments had been fixed.
In total, 83 people were implicated in the probe, including those accused of being the leaders of the Armenian group. More than 40 bank accounts used by those accused of being involved with the ring were blocked by the authorities.
The police are also investigating what they suspect are strong links between some of those arrested in Spain and an Armenian-Belgian crime gang, broken up by the Belgian police last year, that was also suspected of fixing tennis matches. In the Belgian case, the police announced the arrests of 13 people in June and said that the gang had also targeted lower-level tennis matches.
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