Following the news that the blood bags seized during the Operación Puerto raids are likely to be destroyed, WADA President John Fahey has said that the anti-doping agency will push to preserve the evidence for possible sanctioning of the sportspeople involved.
“WADA continues to be very frustrated by the slow wheels of Spanish justice in this case,” he told VeloNation today. “We continue to emphasize that the evidence gathered by law enforcement during the investigation needs to be preserved for sharing with sport and anti-doping authorities.
"While some of this evidence might not be necessarily used in court, it certainly can be crucial in the sanctioning processes for individual athletes who may have committed doping offences.” One method to identify those involved would be to run DNA testing, along the lines of the analysis that confirmed the involvement of Jan Ullrich and Alejandro Valverde.
The blood bags, banned substances and coded records of clients were seized when the Madrid clinic of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes was raided in May 2006. A large number of riders were implicated in what became known as Operación Puerto but, frustratingly, many other sportspeople were never identified, let alone sanctioned.
Fuentes himself confirmed that he treated footballers, tennis players, basketball players and others, saying that the cycling element was but one small part of his total business.
As a result of the raids, riders such as Ullrich, Ivan Basso, and others were prevented from starting the 2006 Tour de France. Many suspensions followed, with the most recent being Valverde, who was not sanctioned until earlier this year.
Part of the reason why things have not progressed as WADA would have wished is because there was no specific anti-doping law in place in Spain at the time. However, there has also been a general consensus that there has been little will shown to investigate things further vis-à-vis the sporting indiscretions, with UCI President Pat McQuaid and others claiming that the Spanish sporting authorities are soft on doping.
Others, such as those running football's governing body FIFA have also showed little will to get to the bottom of the case.
The recent news that investigating judge Arturo Beltran has said that the evidence is most likely to be destroyed has led to further fears that many of the sportspeople involved will never be penalised for using banned substances and methods.
Fahey told VeloNation that he would keep pushing, though, in the hope that the right outcome will be achieved. “We will continue to liaise with the Spanish governmental and judicial authorities and explore all possible avenues to preserve evidence, in cooperation with the UCI and other relevant stakeholders,” he promised. He added that it seemed illogical for those concerned to simply destroy the evidence.
“It would certainly be very difficult for WADA, the public and all those who want clean sport to understand why judicial authorities would not want to pass on information that might help uncover cheating.
“WADA itself is not a sanctioning body but, as the independent international organization responsible for coordinating and monitoring the global fight against doping in sport, we will pass on any valuable information we may gather or receive to the authorities with proper jurisdiction to act.”