The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that it has given a four-year sanction to 41-year-old Thomas Luton of McKinney, Texas, for a "non-analytical anti-doping rule violation".
Luton was also disqualified from any competitive results back to January 16, 2011 for the use and possession of erythropoietin (EPO), human growth hormone (hGH), and testosterone from 2010 through 2012. Luton's ban began on December 7, 2016.
The case stems from an investigation into a website called "The Anemia Patient Group", a scheme run by Los Angeles resident Nicholas Brandt-Sorenson that emerged earlier this year when Brandt-Sorenson was banned for life by USADA after being convicted of buying banned substances from Asia and re-selling them in the US under the pseudonym Eric Horowitz.
Luton is the sixth athlete to be banned by USADA in connection with the case. According to the LA Times, Wisconsin-based cyclist Kyle Schmidt, Palm Springs-based triathlete Brook Radcliffe and Robert Radcliffe of Salt Lake City were also banned for similar offences.
Brandt-Sorenson was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 300 hours of community service for two misdemeanor offences in a federal court.
