| In France and Italy, the police are fighting doping Sports authorities have few ways to combat doping. The IOC and sports federations have virtually no “power levers” other than sample analysis. However, in some countries, law enforcement agencies are also trying to fight with stimulants and anabolics. France has the most severe approach to prohibited drugs: here the very fact of finding an ampoule with a doping agent in the pocket of an athlete or doctor is a criminal offense. The police, unlike sports officials, have the legal right to conduct searches and empty suspicious pockets. However, until the end of the 90s of the last century, this law was practically not applied.
When the police remembered the law, they naturally began with professional cycling, which, together with athletics, competes for the title of “the dirtiest sport.” The first special operation to eliminate doping took place at the prestigious Tour de France race in 1998. During the break between stages, the police conducted night searches in the hotels where the athletes were staying. As a result, “evidence” was found that riders are taking doping en masse, in particular erythropoietin (EPO). It increases the number of red blood cells in an athlete’s blood, and in the late 90s this substance was considered the most effective doping that increases muscle endurance. However, it is extremely difficult to “catch” erythropoietin in a sample taken, and at that time methods for detecting EPO had not yet been developed. The police's goal was to find direct evidence in the teams' luggage - packages of this drug.
First of all, the leading team “Festina” was targeted, which included several leaders of world cycling, including the famous Frenchman Richard Virank. The evidence was so strong that the cycling group was immediately removed from the race. Virank and several other riders were even kept overnight in the police station - an unheard-of incident for sports investigations! However, the main suspect was the team's sporting director Bruno Roussel, and charges were also brought against the Festina doctor and physiotherapist, as well as several riders. Then, at the trial in Lille, Roussel will be forced to confirm that he supplied the racers with prohibited drugs; several athletes will also admit their guilt. Eight people from Festina will be convicted, but the main “star” Viranka will never be convicted. Only after the court reluctantly found him innocent, in 2001, the driver suddenly made a frank admission that he and other team members had taken doping. Moreover, Virank would be one of the first to openly confirm what was often said “off the press”: that doping was a standard and everyday practice in cycling.
Almost simultaneously with this scandal, the police launched the “TVM cycling group case.” A Russian trace has already been discovered here - along with sports director Kees Priem, the doctor of this Dutch team, Andrei Mikhailov, was arrested. He was found to have drugs prohibited for import into France. The investigation of the case at times resembled a real action movie: the police pressed the car of one of the Russian TVM massage therapists to the side of the highway and searched it on the spot. The trial in this case lasted until 2001, as a result Kees Priyom received an 18-month suspended sentence, and Mikhailov received a year's suspended sentence. In addition, they were fined. By that time, the TVM team had already been disbanded for a year due to its doping trail.
Following the French, the Italian police also adopted the tactics of night searches. In 2001, during the Giro d'Italia cycling race in Sanremo, where the field stopped between stages, the carabinieri searched the riders' license plates. Then the famous Italian Marco Pantani suffered, in whose room insulin was found (this medicine for diabetics in sports has long been prohibited).
The police carried out one of the last high-profile anti-doping operations in 2002. Then Edita Rumsiene, the wife of Lithuanian cycling pro Raimondas Rumsas, was detained in France. A set of 35 illegal drugs was found in her bag. She was accused of illegally importing these pills into France, but she justified herself by saying that she needed this entire first aid kit to treat her mother. Shortly before this, Rumsas unexpectedly took third place in the final standings of the Tour de France, but was never caught for doping, although he was tested four times during the race.
The police and courts will probably continue their anti-doping operations. But we must understand that trials of doctors and wives of athletes will not be a panacea. Thus, the same Marco Pantani, who won the scandalous Tour de France in 1998, two years later almost received three months in prison because of that same EPO. And the fact that the police, who had been searching for the cyclists’ license plates all night, had no evidence against Pantani at the time, does not remove suspicion from him. Many believe that even in that “Tour”, which took place under total police surveillance, the Italian won the victory not without the help of doping. Vladimir DZAGUTO |
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