Pacifist pot minister Reverend Roger Christie has been 
Former Ecuadorian World Cup football referee Byron Moreno has been arrested for suspected drug smuggling. He was arrested Monday at John F. Kennedy International airport after a flight from Ecuador. The drugs had been strapped to his body and concealed in his underwear.
A complaint filed in a Brooklyn federal court said that Moreno “became visibly nervous” during the routine inspection. It also said “A customs agent felt hard objects on the defendant’s stomach, back and both of his legs. A strip search revealed that the lumps were 10 clear plastic bags containing more than 10 pounds of heroin”.
A judge jailed Moreno without bail on charges of drug smuggling.
Moreno is most well remembered after he refereed the World Cup second round match between Italy and host’s South Korea. Moreno had disallowed a valid Italian goal and sent off Italian striker Francesco Totti for apparent diving. He also failed to call any attention to any of the South Korean’s foul play. Moreno resigned from refereeing in 2003.
Byron Moreno Backgrounder
Byron Aldemar Moreno Ruales (born November 23, 1969 in Quito) is a former Ecuadorian football referee, best known for officiating the Italy vs South Korea match in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Italy vs South Korea
Moreno was widely blamed by the Italian community for Italy’s elimination from the 2002 World Cup after being defeated by South Korea in the Round of 16. Members of the Italian team, most notably Italian striker Francesco Totti and coach Giovanni Trapattoni, suggested a conspiracy to eliminate Italy from the competition. Trapattoni even obliquely accused that the official was ordered by FIFA to ensure a Korean victory so that one of the two host nations would remain in the tournament. The criticized calls include a debatable early penalty to South Korea, a Damiano Tommasi offside and sending off Francesco Totti for diving with a second yellow card.
FIFA Response
FIFA President Sepp Blatter stated that the linesmen have been a “disaster” and admitted that Italy suffered from bad off-sides calls from the group matches but denied conspiracy allegations. While ruing Totti’s sending off by Moreno, Blatter refused to blame Italy’s loss on Moreno but pointed out Italy’s mistakes in both defense and attack. Blatter also criticized Italy’s response to their loss by urging Italy to, “display some dignity and fair play because you can tell a great side more by the way it accepts defeat than by the way it handles victory.”
After the 2002 World Cup
In September 2002, Moreno, while a candidate in October elections for places on the Quito city council, was suspended for twenty matches and investigated by Ecuadorian soccer authorities and FIFA after a match he officiated between Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito and Barcelona Sporting Club from Guayaquil. With Liga de Quito trailing 3–2 at the end of the match, Moreno signalled six minutes of injury time, then allowed play to continue for thirteen minutes, during which Liga de Quito scored an equaliser in the 99th minute, then won the game in the 101st minute. Moreno was also accused of falsifying the minutes in which Liga de Quito scored their equalising and winning goals in his official match report.
In May 2003, in his third game back from his suspension, Moreno was again suspended, for one match, after he sent off three players from visiting Deportivo Quito in a 1–1 draw at Deportivo Cuenca. He retired the following month, blaming low performance marks for his retirement.
Criminal records
- Suspended from football refereeing after showing three illegal red cards to the visitor team Sociedad Deportiva Quito in a match against Deportivo Cuenca in May 2003, which would prompt him a month later to quit refereeing for good .
- In July 2008, new arrest after a family feud in which he beat his mother and an 8-year old niece.
- In January 2010 he spent three days under arrest in Guayaquil for DUI.
-Compiled from reports at wikinews.org and wikipedia.org.
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