No new names expected, but blood bags may be destroyed
It's all about blood - performance-enhancing methods abound in pro cycling (Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Operacion Puerto may soon be over, and all the blood bags taken into custody destroyed. The Spanish judge who ordered the case to be reviewed said that he doubted that further revelations or names would ever be revealed.
Judge Arturo Beltran ordered that the case against Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes be reviewed again in spring 2011, after a series of court cases in Spain had sought to end the case.
“When the final ruling is issued, after a possible appeal, then it is likely that in the end all the blood bags and evidence will be destroyed,” Beltran said on the German TV show “Sport Inside” scheduled to be broadcast Monday evening, according to the dpa news agency.
Fuentes is said to have handled 200 athletes, and 50 names have been made public, most of them cyclists. Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Alejandro Valverde are among his most prominent clients.
“One could probably find out which athletes doped with Fuentes,” said Eduardo Esteban, the Madrid prosecuting attorney handling the Fuentes case. “But since Spanish criminal law isn't relevant to them, this investigation will not be conducted. And therefore is is most likely that no new names or sports will appear in the case against Fuentes .”
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