Ex-Russian Olympics official who drew wrath of Putin arrested by ICE in South Florida

BY DAVID OVALLE
OCTOBER 22, 2019 02:06 PM, UPDATED 3 HOURS 55 MINUTES AGO

A former Russian Olympic official once publicly ridiculed by President Vladimir Putin was arrested Tuesday morning by U.S. immigration agents at his home in Sunny Isles Beach.

Agents detained Akhmed Bilalov, a one-time deputy head of the Russian Olympic Committee who fled the country after Putin chastised him for construction delays and spiraling costs before the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

Bilalov, in a 2013 interview with The Guardian, claimed he’d been poisoned with mercury while in Russia, suggesting he had been targeted by government agents, who have over the years been accused of killing Putin critics and opponents with poisons or staged accidents.

Sources confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, took Bilalov into custody early Tuesday at a condo on the 17000 block of Collins Avenue.

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