Fugencio Sanchez, head of the Spanish cycling federation, said that he had suspicions for years about those persons caught up in Operación Puerto, and called the present situation "one of the greatest crises in Spanish sport."
"We've had doubts. We had heard comments," Sanchez told The Associated Press. "I always thought that this day had to come in order to clear up those doubts.
"I know all of these people. They have spent their lives in Spanish cycling and all of them have an important career in cycling," Sanchez said. "I was always suspicious. His skepticism started during the 1998 Tour de France and increased after Roberto Heras tested positive for EPO at the 2005 Vuelta a España.
"The police operation was necessary. We had gone astray in anti-doping issues in Spain," Sanchez said. "We had the duty to start persecuting those frauds."
