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Spanish Doctor Sentenced in Cycling Doping Case Judge Orders Blood Bags Destroyed in Doping Case
(about 1 hour later)
A Spanish doctor at the center of a blood doping ring that catered to some of the world’s best cyclists and other top athletes was convicted Tuesday in a Spanish court of endangering public health, nearly seven years after a raid on his office in Madrid sent the sport of cycling reeling. A Spanish judge ordered the destruction Tuesday of the 200-plus blood bags seized in a raid of a major European doping ring that catered to elite athletes, thwarting an effort to uncover possibly one of the biggest doping scandals in history.
Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes was sentenced to one year in prison and a four-year ban from practicing medicine for his role in doping athletes, though he was not charged with a doping offense by Spanish authorities. In 2006, when his office was raided by law enforcement, doping was not illegal in Spain. A law that makes doping illegal is currently being pushed through Spanish parliament, partly to help Madrid’s bid for the 2020 Olympics. Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria ruled in Spanish court that the bags of blood, plasma and red blood cells, as well as the documentation regarding those blood bags, gathered in a 2006 raid of the office of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes could not be released to antidoping authorities because of Spain’s privacy laws. Antidoping agencies and sports federations, including the World Anti-Doping Agency and Spain’s new antidoping agency, had requested the blood bags so they could try to identify which athletes had been Fuentes’s clients and pursue doping cases involving them. Though only cyclists have been identified as working with Fuentes, he testified at his two-month trial that his patients also included athletes in tennis, soccer, boxing and track and field.
Fuentes has said that he never endangered the health of his clients and that the blood transfusions he gave them helped them with anemia, and were not performance-enhancing. Fuentes was convicted Tuesday of endangering public health for his role in doping athletes by helping them transfuse their own blood, giving them steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. He was given a one-year suspended sentence, a four-year ban from practicing medicine and fined $6,000. He was not charged with a doping offense by Spanish law enforcement because in 2006, when his office was raided, doping was not illegal in Spain. A strict antidoping law is currently being pushed through Spanish parliament, partly to help Madrid’s bid for the 2020 Olympics.
Several of the best cyclists in recent history, including the Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton, the former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich and the Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso, have been implicated in the Fuentes doping ring, which was given the code name Operation Puerto by Spanish law enforcement. Fuentes testified that he tended to athletes in other sports, like soccer, tennis, boxing and track and field. But it is unlikely that the names of those athletes will ever be discovered. The decision to withhold the blood bags from antidoping authorities further perpetuates Spain’s reputation as being soft on doping. For years, doping has been a crime in countries like France and Italy, where cycling is one of the top sports, but Spain has lagged behind in instituting those laws.
In 2006, about a month before the Tour began, steroids, blood transfusion equipment and more than 200 blood bags were seized from Fuentes’s office, with many of those bags labeled with code names. The World Anti-Doping Agency had asked the judge for those blood bags, so it could determine which other athletes were Fuentes’s clients. But Tuesday the judge declined that request, saying that releasing that medical evidence would violate privacy rights. By doing so, though, she stymied what could have uncovered one of the biggest doping scandals in history. When dealing with the 2010 doping case of the Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, the Spanish cycling federation cleared him of all charges after public support grew for Contador, one of the country’s sporting heroes. Several high-profile politicians, including Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, publicly pressured the cycling federation to drop the doping charges against Contador, even though he had tested positive for the banned drug Clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour. “There’s no legal reason to justify sanctioning Contador,” Zapatero said on the Spanish government’s Twitter page. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later upheld a two-year ban against Contador.
On one day of the trial, Fuentes told reporters that the team Real Madrid owed him money, but he would not say whether that debt stemmed from treating Madrid players with performance-enhancing drugs or transfusions. The club said the debt was for Fuentes testifying on its behalf in another trial. Prosecutors also questioned Fuentes about the letters “RSoc” on some paperwork it had confiscated from him, hinting that those letters stood for the soccer team Real Sociedad, the Basque soccer club. He said he did not know what those letters meant. He told reporters that those letters sounded like the name of a good wine. In the doping case of Alejandro Valverde, one of Spain’s other top cyclists, the Italian Olympic committee had to take that matter into its own hands after Spain did nothing to punish the athlete for taking part in Fuentes’s blood doping program. Italian antidoping authorities matched Valverde’s DNA with the DNA inside one of the blood bags seized from Fuentes’s medical office, then barred him from completion for two years because of it.
Only one of Fuentes’s colleagues, Ignacio Labarta, a former trainer for the cycling team Kelme, was convicted with him Tuesday. Labarta was handed a four-month sentence for their involvement in doping athletes. Three others — Yolanda Fuentes, who is Fuentes’s sister; the former Liberty Seguros cycling team manager Manolo Saiz; and the former Kelme cycling team director Vicente Belda — were acquitted of the charges. Throughout the past seven years of the case, Fuentes has said that he never endangered the health of his clients, and that the blood transfusions he gave them helped them with anemia and did not provide any boost in performance.
Several of the best cyclists in recent history, including the Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton, the former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich and the Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso, have been implicated in the Fuentes doping ring, which was given the code name Operation Puerto by Spanish law enforcement.
On one day of the trial, Fuentes told reporters that the team Real Madrid owed him money, but would not say whether that debt stemmed from treating Madrid players with performance-enhancing drugs or transfusions. He later said that he never gave Madrid players any drugs. The club said the debt was for Fuentes testifying on its behalf in another trial. Prosecutors also questioned Fuentes about the letters “RSoc” on some paperwork it had confiscated from him, hinting that those letters stood for the soccer team Real Sociedad, the Basque soccer club. Fuentes said he did not know what those letters meant, and later told reporters that those letters sounded like the name of a good wine.
Only one of Fuentes’s colleagues, Ignacio Labarta, a former trainer for the cycling team Kelme, was convicted with him Tuesday. Labarta was handed a suspended four-month sentence for his involvement in doping athletes. Three others charged in the case — Yolanda Fuentes, who is Fuentes’s sister; the former Liberty Seguros cycling team manager Manolo Saiz; and the former Kelme cycling team director Vicente Belda — were acquitted.
The seizure of those blood bags in 2006 prompted several Tour favorites, including Ullrich and Basso, to be barred from the 2006 Tour in what then was the most serious and sprawling doping scandal in cycling since 1998, when the nine-man Festina team was kicked out of the race after performance-enhancing drugs were found in the car of a team trainer. The police in France conducted drug raids at that race, causing riders to protest.The seizure of those blood bags in 2006 prompted several Tour favorites, including Ullrich and Basso, to be barred from the 2006 Tour in what then was the most serious and sprawling doping scandal in cycling since 1998, when the nine-man Festina team was kicked out of the race after performance-enhancing drugs were found in the car of a team trainer. The police in France conducted drug raids at that race, causing riders to protest.
Testimony in the Operation Puerto case lasted about two months, ending in early April. Hamilton, who also was a key witness in the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s case against Lance Armstrong, testified against Fuentes in February. He claimed that he began to see Fuentes in 2002 when he raced for the team CSC. He said that Bjarne Riis, the team director of CSC, had introduced him to the doctor, and that the doctor had given him the endurance-boosting drug EPO, testosterone and growth hormone. He also testified that Fuentes had helped him with blood transfusions about 15 times, including once during the 2004 Tour. After that transfusion, he said, he felt ill and his urine turned black. He said one of Fuentes’s helpers, Alberto Leon, at least once reinfused him with blood, although Leon had no medical training. Leon committed suicide in 2011. Testimony in the Operation Puerto case lasted about two months, ending in early April. Hamilton, who also was a key witness in the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s doping case against Lance Armstrong that led to Armstrong’s receiving a lifetime ban from Olympic sports, testified against Fuentes in February.
One Spanish rider, Jesus Manzano, claimed Fuentes had given him EPO, cortisone, steroids, Actovegin, which is an extract of calves’ blood, and Oxyglobin, a veterinary medicine used to treat anemia in dogs. He said riders would head out on their bikes and jokingly bark or moo, depending on what drugs they were taking. Hamilton claimed that he began to see Fuentes in 2002 when he raced for the team CSC. He said that Bjarne Riis, the team director of CSC, had introduced him to the doctor, and that the doctor had given him the endurance-boosting drug EPO, testosterone and growth hormone. He also testified that Fuentes had helped him with blood transfusions about 15 times, including once during the 2004 Tour. After receiving that transfusion in 2004, Hamilton said he felt ill and his urine had turned black. He said one of Fuentes’s helpers, Alberto Leon, at least once reinfused him with blood, although Leon had no medical training. Leon committed suicide in 2011.
One Spanish rider, Jesus Manzano, claimed that Fuentes had given him EPO, cortisone, steroids, Actovegin, which is an extract of calves’ blood, and Oxyglobin, a veterinary medicine used to treat anemia in dogs. He said riders would head out on their bikes and jokingly bark or moo, depending on what drugs they were taking.
Fuentes and Labarta have 10 days to appeal their sentences. The blood bags seized in the case will remain in storage until the case is completed.