Gee, sorry about that, Jan . . .

[BumbleBeeDave]

How many careers have been ruined by this? Oops, sorry about that! Never mind! . . . :crap: :butt:

BBD

===========================================

Puerto inquiry dropped, Spanish papers report
By staff and wire reports
This report filed March 10, 2007

The Operación Puerto blood-doping inquiry has been dropped due to a lack of evidence that a crime was committed under Spanish law, the Spanish press reported Saturday.

Spanish daily El Mundo said Judge Antonio Serrano had dismissed the case, ruling that "there was no law that penalized doping practices under Spanish legislation at the time this case was begun."

The reports said that while Serrano had determined that blood doping occured, there was no evidence of the practice harming riders' health. That was the requirement under previous Spanish law for charges to be filed against someone who administered doping substances to an athlete.

A new law, which took effect in February, makes it a crime to prescribe, dispense or facilitate use of such substances, regardless of their effect on a person's health.

The official announcement is expected Monday. Another Spanish daily, El Pais, reported that prosecutors intend to appeal Serrano's ruling.

In May 2006, police raids discovered a number of bags of frozen blood, some containing the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) along with anabolic steroids and equipment for transfusions.

Documents alleged to detail the doping activities of more than 50 cyclists were also found, leading to the immediate suspension of several high-profile riders, among them Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Francisco Mancebo, all of whom were denied the opportunity to race last year's Tour de France.

Among the people arrested in the inquiry were doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and Manolo Saiz, former sporting director of the now-disbanded Liberty Seguros team.

[JohnS]

Dave, read the whole thing. He said there was blood doping, it just wasn't illegal because it couldn't be proved that it harmed the riders' health.

[jhcakilmer]

I just get mad everytime I think about this "operation". Classic example of the UCI and WADA doing an half a$$ job!! I definitely agree they should be coming down hard on offenders, but when they don't have enough evidence, it's just gossip.....ridiculous!

[AgilisMerlin]

Manolo Saiz was set up :D


AmerliN

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . Maybe I should have more accurately titled the thread "Gee, sorry about that, GUYS" . . .

The story says that Serrano says that doping DID take place, but note there is nothing in this story about who might have doped or whether they were even cyclists. I wonder seriously if the story in El Mundo included that info, either. I'd bet not. Keep in mind that other athletes from other sports--most notably soccer--were included in this sting, but the newspapers publicized that very little.

The sarcastic point I was trying to make is that so many athletes have been tarred with this brush--all of them cyclists, to my knowledge. All of them may have doped, or just one. We can't tell from the "evidence" that Judge Serrano refers to. But regardless, so many careers and lives have been ruined. Ulrich is only the most prominent--and I have not really seen any concrete evidence that HE doped, either. It comes right down to the name "Jan" being on a couple of bags of blood, as far as I can remember. I'm sure Ulrich is not the only athlete around named "Jan."

This whole thing was guilt by association and insinuation for so many riders. It's ridiculous and shameful for the Spanish authorities to now just say, "Oops, never mind!"

This just reminds me so much of how many more stories we are seeing in the media in this country now that DNA evidence continues to exonerate so many people in cases where once the accusation was made, the DA's or other prosecutor's suddenly seemed to only be looking at their own vested interest in getting a conviction, evidence or truth be d@mned. Looks like the same thing was happening here with the Spanish police.

BBD

[93legendti]

BBD, I agree with you. Sadly, quite a few people jumped on the guilty 'till proven inocent bandwagon last summer. In November, I posted this:

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=275243&postcount=29

Never got an answer...

[Grant McLean]

BBD, I agree with you. Sadly, quite a few people jumped on the guilty 'till proven inocent bandwagon last summer. In November, I posted this:

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=275243&postcount=29

Never got an answer...

maybe hidden with the WMD's in Iraq?

g

[Kevan]

Practice...practice...practice.

[Fivethumbs]

I seem to remember some very circumstantial evidence being used to implicate the cyclists, like the name of someone's pet was listed in the books or on the bags. That doesn't seem like enough to totally screw up someone's life/career.

[BBB]

The report in Cyclingnews suggests that the files will be handed over to the UCI once the criminal cases in Spain come to a close and no doubt there will be further investigation.

In any event, this would seem to be the reason that the investigation may be shelved:

"The sport's biggest blood doping affair, in which Madrid doctors Eufemiano Fuentes and José Luis Merino, team directors Manolo Saiz and Ignacio Labarta, as well as former mountain biker Alberto Leon have been implicated and accused of making blood doping possible to 58 professional cyclists, may thus have no criminal consequences, as it may not come to a trial.

The main reason for this would be that the judge could not assemble enough proof to justify the accused of crimes against public health, the only penal sanction possible as the new Spanish anti-doping law - which foresees prison sentences for those encouraging the use of doping substances - came into effect only in February 2007, long after the happenings. This legal reform cannot be retroactive."

[1centaur]

This brings up what many wondered back in 2006 - why the concerted, long undercover investigation in the months BEFORE a law was passed that would have made the fruit of that investigation a crime? Were the authorities trying to bolster the case for passing the law and got more than they bargained for with OP? Was this never about the Spanish law at all but a political decision to reverse the commonly held belief that Spanish riders were all doping while others were not?

In any event, this development has little to do with the effects OP will have in the peloton, unless the UCI/ASO/WADA/sponsors decide that it will have a lot. I am guessing they've gone too far to turn back. They may choose to institute the new tougher rules and call it a victory while besmirching Basso et. al. for the rest of their lives, or they may choose to take the evidence from the Spanish courts that was long denied them and pile on for a July conclusion hoping to exclude Basso and undercut Discovery. My call on human nature based on what I have seen of behavior to date is they will do the latter if they possibly can. If the evidence is so weak that even bureaucrats who don't care about air tight arguments can't make a credible sounding case (really, what are the odds of that?) they will do the former.

[BdaGhisallo]

This brings up what many wondered back in 2006 - why the concerted, long undercover investigation in the months BEFORE a law was passed that would have made the fruit of that investigation a crime?

Now that would be a retrospective application of law which, if I am not mistaken, is a no-no. Just think of the chaos that could erupt, not just in sport, if legislatures could pass laws that would criminalize previously legal activity that took place in the past.

[Tom]

(1) Why the investigation before a new law passed? Maybe they also thought they'd find things like tax evasion, money laundering, any number of things that are common accompaniments to this kind of enterprise. Remember, they got Al Capone for tax evasion not any of his other myriad activities.

(2) Poor Jan? Price of admission. Farm machinery eats peoples arms and legs. At least he was smart enough to go to a doc that knew how to dose right and Jan's blood didn't solidify overnight and killl him. Jan's got at least his short term health and certainly a source of income, don't worry yourself over that.

(3) Yeah, but he could be riding and getting glory. Screw glory. Money's where it's at. Glory's for punks.

[stevep]

im no expert on this and i have no particular ax to grind but this is a simple legal issue in my eyes.
in spain ( where the event took place ) there was no law against performance enhancing drugs in sport. the affected all phases of this case in legal discovery as well as ( obviously ) prosecution.
these laws exist in italy, france, usa, etc, etc.
hence: the riders might have ( might have ) taken advantage of the absence of these laws. laws to this effect have now been passed. if this whole thing took place now the outcome might ( might ) be very different. there would be a possibility to subpoena testimony under oath which would insure penalties for perjury...

but most agree that we live by the laws established in our communities. and we also accept that enforcement is required to accept and live within these laws ( current administration and the nsa excepted ).
this is why this whole thing has foundered.
it was not illegal in spain at the time.

a lot of the rest is obfuscation.