Five years after Ronaldinho Gaucho’s arrest with his brother for having fake passports in Paraguay, the one that is the key piece of the case remains at large. Pointed out as who made the documents possible to the duo, Dalia López never presented to the court and, it seems, has continued to dribble local authorities since then.
López had arrest order issued on March 7, 2020, a day after Ronaldinho was arrested. Two weeks later, in the face of his refusal to surrender, an order of international capture has been issued – and has been renewed since then. Just four months ago the request was made to Interpol again by a Judge of Asuncion.
The businesswoman who said “in search of poverty vaccine” and had known ties with the government was accused of criminal association and production of fake documents.
It is since then considered the intellectual responsible for the case, the piece that is missing to understand what was the real objective of false passports made and delivered to Ronaldinho.
Since the time, the former player says he was innocent and was in the country with contracts signed by his brother to the inauguration of an online casino and the launch of a book, “Crack of Life.”
The Federal Public Prosecution Service has since been working with the hypothesis that López intended to use the fake Paraguayan documents to launder large sums of money obtained in a smuggling activities and possibly drug trafficking.
The Paraguayan National Police never found it, even though citizens have already, more than once, claimed to have seen her in Public Zones of Asuncion. A pickup truck was also found less than two years ago in the country’s capital, and at least one witness said she, accompanied by two security guards, had gotten out of the car. Nothing changed in the case, but the court said at the time that he began to investigate who would be supporting López.
The report was unable to contact her defense.
A López confession would fill a picture that five years ago has many blank gaps. Ronaldinho and his brother, Roberto de Assis, were almost six months arrested, but were released after paying fines that added and in corrected amounts would equivalent to R $ 1.4 million. They owe nothing to Paraguayan justice. Already Dalia López …
The businesswoman appeared to have some relationship with the government of former President Mario Abdo Benítez (2018-2023) and has appeared in photos with him. He even participated in presidential events. The profits of their eight companies registered in categories such as exports are not known, but in 2019 they were investigated for money laundering and fiscal dropout. In addition, López was a benefactor.
In a pompous interview he gave to the Argentine unit of the Caras magazine, he was described: “His philosophy seeks the balance between greed and spiritual; in his land, Paraguay, he enjoys both business and helping others.” The text was published three weeks before Ronaldinho’s arrival to Asuncion.
López said he had many Brazilian friends and that the former player would allegedly go to the country to participate in events in his charity projects. She even created mobile health care units to serve women, children, the elderly and indigenous Guarani. “I like to dress well, I like expensive perfumes, different cuisine, brand cars, but it also satisfies me to be jointly and so, she said in that conversation.
The prosecutors of the case, however, described López as a very different person from the one he himself had. They said she was part of an organized criminal organization to facilitate the making of fake identity documents and passports to use them in money laundering. This would occur with the participation of state employees. The idea is that the case of the Brazilian threw light on the subject, but it would not be isolated from far.
In December 2023, the local court concluded the trial of seven defendants involved in the case and sentenced them to penalties of two to five years in prison. Two of them were civil servants.
Ronaldinho recently launched the “Wizard Manual” program, an online course to teach young athletes how to improve performance. In recent days, in the X, it has implied that soon it could launch a memecoin (cryptocurrency based on internet trends).
It is a type of controversial investment that has grown between famous and politicians and generated crises, such as the latest in Argentina, with the scytogate scandal within the Javier Milei government.
Ronaldinho has already been investigated for an alleged fraud scheme in these digital actives.
