The head of Spain’s Anti-Doping Agency, Enrique Gómez Bastida, has said that the possible destruction of blood bags discovered as part of Operación Puerto “would be a hard blow for our anti-doping fight.” The verdict on the long-awaited appeal over the 200-plus blood bags seized during anti-doping probe Operación Puerto is expected soon and could see the bags being destroyed rather than released.
Gómez Bastida was a driving force behind Operación Puerto when working as a Guardia Civil police officer in 2006, and he became the head of Spain’s Anti-Doping Agency, AEPSAD, two years ago.
Speaking to Spanish daily El Mundo, Gómez Bastida said “if I weren't in the position of director of the agency, I would be satisfied, because at the time [of the Puerto investigation] the sporting aspect was not the central issue.” (Those charged in 2006 were charged with offences against public health, given Spain’s anti-doping legislation which came into force in 2013 was not applicable.)
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“Now that I’m not a police officer, I’ve got a different perspective and it [a verdict ordering the bags to be destroyed] would be a hard blow because it’s important to send a clear message in the anti-doping struggle. It’s important that those implicated recognise the facts.”
Should the blood bags - said to total around 220, and currently in the custody of the anti-doping laboratory in Barcelona - be released rather than destroyed, Gómez Bastida said that AEPSAD would oversee the process of identification of their owners.
These are the 100 or so clients of doctors Eufemiano Fuentes and Merino Batres, the doctor at the centre of the Puerto investigation - a much higher total than the 35 or so that were previously suspected - and some of which, Gomez Bastida said, “perhaps did not even know that Fuentes was their doctor, because their sports directors were in charge of the procedure.”
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