Paraguay officials raid South American soccer confederation CONMEBOL

Paraguayan state prosecutors on Thursday raided the headquarters of CONMEBOL, South America`s soccer confederation, as part of a money laundering investigation, a police official told local radio.

Asuncion: Prosecutor Hernán Galeano led Thursday`s raid on CONMEBOL`s headquarters building on the outskirts of Paraguay`s capital, Asuncion, local police official Abel Cañete said in an interview broadcast on radio station Primero de Marzo. 

Two soccer bosses, a former president of Honduras and a former head of CONMEBOL, pleaded not guilty last month to U.S. charges they took bribes in exchange for media and marketing contracts in a scandal that has rocked the business of global soccer.

Rafael Callejas, who was president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994 and later became president of its soccer federation, and Juan Angel Napout, a Paraguayan and former president of the South American confederation CONMEBOL, went to the United States voluntarily after their indictment was unsealed on Dec. 3.

They are among 41 people and entities charged in a U.S. corruption sweep that has sent soccer`s world governing body, FIFA, into an unprecedented crisis.