Cyclingnews' full coverage of the Madrid court case
Eufemiano Fuentes was at the center of Operacion Puerto (Image credit: AFP Photo)
Operación Puerto started out as an action by the Spanish civil guard, who in 2006 were looking into some suspicious activities at a Madrid clinic run by Eufemiano Fuentes - former team doctor for Kelme and, as it has now been revealed, blood doper to the stars.
The civil guard turned up hundreds of bags of blood, doping products and supplies, and coded documents which have linked a number of cyclists to the doping ring.
Unfortunately, the Spanish justice system intervened for six full years, ruling that since there was no law in Spain at the time against doping, the activities were not illegal.
The dossier of evidence, the bags of blood and the WADA code violations have only resulted in a handful of suspensions: Ivan Basso, Michele Scarponi, Jan Ullrich... the list is much shorter than the list of code names in the documents.
The case was finally revived in 2013, when Fuentes, his sister Yolanda and pro team personnel Manolo Saiz (Liberty Seguros), Vicente Belda and José Ignacio Labarta went on trial for violations against public health.
