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The international gang suspected in Europe's biggest match-fixing scandal reportedly supplied sedatives to team doctors and hotel cooks to drug players, a lawyer for one of the arrested suspects says.
Prosecutors believe the gang did not shy away from 'locking up people in basements' or 'sedating players,' lawyer Burkhard Benecken said.
'According to prosecutors, they were extremely violent,' he said.
The doctor of a Slovenian team was reportedly given sedatives to use on his own players, and the chefs in luxury hotels were given drugs to disable players, Benecken said.
'Whether it actually happened is not known,' he said.
Benecken represents one of the 15 people arrested in Germany and says he has seen the files of Bochum prosecutors leading the investigation into what football officials say is the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit Europe, with 200 games suspected of being fixed to benefit the gang.
The prosecutor's office in Bochum, which specialises in cracking down on organised crime, has declined to give details about its ongoing investigation besides saying that 15 people have been arrested in Germany and two in Switzerland.
Benecken's client, identified only as Deniz C, is accused of kidnapping and fraud and is suspected of making nearly one million euros ($A1.64 million) from manipulated bets.
The betting network extended globally and was active in several Asian countries, with a major middleman based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Benecken said, citing prosecutors' files.
The prosecutors have not identified any of the suspects.
Meanwhile, the German fourth-tier club Ulm said it had suspended three players who could be implicated in match-fixing.
