Athlete ‘Kidnapped’ by Rio Police

A jiu-jitsu champion from New Zealand claims Rio de Janeiro police kidnapped him at gunpoint and forced him to pay a $610 bribe over the weekend. The athlete, Jason Lee, who has been living in Rio for a year, told New Zealand media it all started with a traffic stop, with police saying they were doing a routine search for drugs and weapons. But Lee was then told he’d be arrested for not having his passport on him—unless, he said, he could hand over $610 in cash. When he said he didn’t have enough money, police forced him into a vehicle and drove him to an ATM, where he got the money and was then promptly released. Lee reported the incident to the city’s Tourist Police, he said. Rio has faced a series of pitfalls ahead of the Olympic Games in August, including the Zika virus, a widespread doping scandal, and corruption among the cash-strapped police force.