Paraguayan authorities jailed Dalia Lopez on Monday, April 14, 2026, after a judge ruled the 55-year-old was a flight risk and ordered her into pre-trial detention in a women’s prison in Emboscada, about 35 kilometres from Asuncion.
Lopez was arrested in Asuncion on April 2 after spending six years on the run. She is accused of criminal association and of providing forged documents to Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, known as Ronaldinho, and his brother Roberto de Assis Moreira.
The detention marks the latest turn in a case that has shadowed Ronaldinho since his March 2020 visit to Paraguay for a charity event. He and his brother were arrested two days after arriving in the country for travelling on fake Paraguayan passports with fake ID cards, then spent nearly one month in custody and another four months under house arrest in an Asuncion hotel before being released on bail of USD 1.6 million.
The case still leaves a central question unanswered: why they agreed to travel on fake passports at all. Brazilians can enter Paraguay using only a national ID, and so far 18 people have been charged as investigators continue to trace how the forged documents were arranged.
For Lopez, the judge’s ruling means she will stay behind bars while the case moves forward. For Ronaldinho, the old mystery remains: the documents were fake, the route was unnecessary, and the reason for taking it has never been made clear.
