The international gang suspected in Europe's biggest match-fixing scandal reportedly supplied sedatives to team doctors and hotel cooks to drug players in matches to be manipulated, according to a lawyer for one of the arrested suspects.

Prosecutors believe the gang used pressure and did not shy 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 in what football officials say is the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit Europe, with 200 games suspected of being fixed to benefit the gang of bettors.

Few details

The prosecutor's office in Bochum, which specialized in cracking down on organized 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 EURO1 million ($1.59 million Cdn) in manipulated bets.

"He is supposed to have kidnapped somebody and held him for three days," the lawyer said.

The betting network extended globally and was active in several Asian countries, with a major middleman based in Rotterdam, 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.