Pele weeps for son held in drugs raid

Soccer legend Pele wept when he visited his son, who is in police custody in Brazil on suspicion of drug trafficking, and said he regretted he had failed to see Edinho was using narcotics.

Soccer legend Pele wept when he visited his son, who is in police custody in Brazil on suspicion of drug trafficking, and said he regretted he had failed to see Edinho was using narcotics.

Edson Cholbi Nascimento, 34, known as Edinho, was arrested on Monday along with 51 others in the port city of Santos. He was being held at the anti-narcotics police headquarters in the state capital, Sao Paulo.

In a letter released by his lawyer, Edinho, a former goalkeeper for Santos soccer club, said he was dependent on marijuana but denied being involved with drug traffickers.

Police said that based on tapped phone calls they believed Edinho was involved with cocaine traffickers.

Pele visited Edinho yesterday and said afterwards: "As you know I am a very emotional person and when I saw Edinho, I had nothing to say. I just embraced him and cried all the time, saying that I would try to help him overcome this problem.

"Perhaps because I was working so much I didn't see this. It's sad that because of my intense campaign against drugs I could not see what was happening in my own house."

Edinho said he experimented with drugs as a teenager but the situation got out of control when he stopped playing for Santos in 1999.

The anti-narcotics police chief, Ivaney Caires de Souza, said there were indications Edinho was connected to Ronaldo Duarte Barsotti de Freitas, or Naldinho, who was also arrested and is accused of heading a drugs trafficking and money-laundering ring with links to the notorious Red Command and First Capital Command gangs.