Brazilian law enforcers arrested Facebook's Latin America regional vice-president after WhatsApp failed to comply with a court order demanding information from the social media company's subsidiary.

The social media company's senior executive Diego Dzodan is being questioned by São Paulo police after he was arrested at the Garulhos airport early on Tuesday per an order from a judge in Sergipe in northeastern Brazil.

According to The Guardian, the arrest was related to WhatsApp's failure to provide information demanded by the country's judiciary regarding an alleged drug trafficking ring.

Apparently, the company had been repeatedly demanded to relinquish messages linked to the suspected drug syndicate necessary for the probe.

After three failed attempts at the request, the Brazilian court decided to order the arrest of the executive and charge Facebook 50,000 reais (almost $13,000), plus a fine of 1 million reais (about $250,000) for every single day that the company does not comply.

"In the face of repeated non-compliance, the judge Marcel Maia ordered the arrest of a representative of the company in Brazil, Mr Diego Dzodan for obstructing the police investigation," a court spokesman explained to the outlet.

According to BBC News, the social media giant clarified that they have always been available to aid the investigations in any way they can.

"Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have," the company said in a statement.

However, the company claims that they do not possess the information Brazilian authorities keep pressing them for, deeming the arrest of the Argentine senior official as "extreme and disproportionate" in a statement.

"We are disappointed that law enforcement took this extreme step. WhatsApp cannot provide information we do not have," a spokesperson for WhatsApp told The Guardian.

According to Reuters, detention of social media company officials is "extremely rare" since they have consistently complied with court orders.

However, Atty. Marcia Hoffmann, an Internet law expert, believes that WhatsApp's case is different since governments other than the U.S. gained leverage over it after the Facebook acquisition.

"WhatsApp is a company that was started very focused on U.S. laws. Now that it's owned by a company with people and resources in other countries, there is more leverage for those governments to put pressure in new and in different ways. Arresting executives is one of them," she explained.

According to The Guardian, privacy and the use of information stored over the Internet have remained a subject of debate in Brazil.