Irish tickets for Rio 2016 that were seized at an apartment in the host city could have been worth up to €3 million.

An Irish man and a British woman were arrested at the weekend after Brazilian police found more than a thousand 'high value' tickets at an apartment in the city.

36 year old Kevin Mallon was arrested on Friday along with a translator, British woman Barbara Carnieri, after police searched their serviced apartment near Rio's Olympic park. They are both being held on fraud charges.

The pair who work for the ticketing firm THG Sports are accused of having Irish allocated tickets.

Inspector Ricardo Barbosa told a press conference in Rio, the tickets were being offered for more than four times the original price:

In a statement, the OCI says it has no knowlege of the two individuals arrested despite the fact that THG ws the authorised ticket reseller for London 2012. It says that it's begun an immediate investigation into how the pair were allegedly in posession of OCI allocated tickets.

Inspector Barbosa says the tickets were for some of the most popular Olympic events.

Minister of State for Sport Patrick O'Donovan, who is in Rio for the Olympics, called on all organisations to which tickets are traced, in any touting investigation, to co-operate fully with the investigating authorities.

Speaking in Rio, he said; 'People come to these events like this, whether at home or here in Brazil,  in the hope of being able to attend and that they'll be able to attend and enjoy the spectacle of sport and they should do so at the face value of the tickets that are up for sale. And anyone who engages in any practice that removes that, in my estimation, is doing a huge disservice to sport, and to the country as well.'

Kevin Mallon has been accused of conspiracy, illicit marketing and facilitating the touting of tickets. He was refused refused bail and has been remanded in a high security prison until his trial.

He faces up to seven years in prison.