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Sebastian Marset built an empire as a kingpin and professional soccer player


A trafficker in Latin America used his wealth to buy professional soccer teams and then fulfilled a boyhood dream: He inserted himself into the starting lineups.

Sebastián Marset, it turned out, was among the most important drug traffickers in South America, and one of the key figures behind a surge of cocaine arriving in Western Europe, according to Latin American, U.S. and European investigators. But it is a startling window into the level of impunity at the nexus of Latin American public life and the lower rungs of professional soccer, enabling drug traffickers to wield enormous influence in both worlds. Lucas Silva in Montevideo, Uruguay; Aldo Benítez in Asunción; Elinda Labropoulou in Athens; Yiannis Tsakarisianos in Trikala, Greece; Samantha Schmidt in Bogotá, Colombia; and Fernando Durán Arancibia in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

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