Saiz released

Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz has been released on Wednesday, following questioning by the Spanish Civil Guard in matters related to doping. However, four others, including former Kelme doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, remain detained pending police questioning.

According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, Saiz was arrested in Madrid yesterday with a briefcase containing €60,000. In addition to Saiz, Eufemiano Fuentes and José Luis Merino Bartres, who was allegedly carrying a bag containing doping substances, including anabolics, were arrested. The newspaper reported that investigators suspect that Saiz was on his way to meeting Fuentes and Merino to close a deal.

Two others, professional mountain biker Alberto León, and Comunidad Valenciana assistant director José Ignacio Labarta, were also arrested. Police searched the flats and lab of Fuentes and Merino, and doping substances and material for transfusing blood was found in Fuentes' two flats, which were not lived in and appeared to be specially set up for administering transfusions.

The arrests were carried out in the framework of an anti-doping investigation headed by the Court of Instruction number 31 in Plaza Castille, Madrid, and the Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, which specialises in matters of drug trafficking. Spanish radio station Cadena SER reported that Saiz was released because police considered him a "client" of the doping network, and presented a "weak escape risk."

Also see: Spanish cycling speaks about Saiz.