Former Bundesliga defender Marcelo Pletsch is still awaiting trial after being arrested in Brazil with 793kg (1,749 pounds) of marijuana back in November 2015.

The former Borussia Monchengladbach and Kaiserslautern player was arrested after military police in Toledo allegedly found marijuana pressed into 854 bars in his truck and, if convicted of drug trafficking, could face up to 15 years in prison.

Brazilian authorities confirmed to German tabloid Express that Pletsch has recently been moved to the state prison in Cascavel, some 50 kilometres away from Toledo, as he continues to wait for a trial.

Pletsch, 40, made 164 top flight appearances for the two clubs between 1999 and 2006 when he left Germany for Greek club Panionis Athens.

"That's shocking, and a very sad story," Marcel Witeczek, one of Pletsch's teammates at Gladbach from 1999 through to 2003, told Bild. "You wouldn't think a former Bundesliga player is capable of doing something like that. I hope the story turns out differently."

Another former teammate, Michael Klinkert, added: "I am baffled. Maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."