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Italy cycling team head arrested in doping investigation | Italy cycling team head arrested in doping investigation |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Italian police have arrested the head of a top amateur cycling team and several associates suspected of giving cyclists performance-enhancing drugs. | |
Police raids took place in Lucca and elsewhere in Tuscany, media report. | Police raids took place in Lucca and elsewhere in Tuscany, media report. |
Luca Franceschi - owner of Altopack-Eppella - and five other top team officials are under house arrest. | |
The sudden death of a young Lithuanian cyclist last May - 21-year-old Linas Rumsas - raised suspicions. He had been among the top racers in Italy. | |
Rumsas's parents Raimondas and Edita had been investigated for alleged doping in 2003. | |
In that year Raimondas, a professional cyclist, was suspended for a year after testing positive for the banned drug EPO in the Giro d'Italia. | |
Police said Mr Franceschi had "recruited the most promising cyclists, encouraged them to take drugs and procured the doping substances for them, including EPO in microdoses". | |
Police also allege that Mr Franceschi's parents - Narciso and Maria Luisa - hosted team cyclists in their home after races and let them inject drugs there. | |
Besides EPO, performance-enhancing growth hormones and painkillers were also allegedly administered. | |
Police found 25 vials of EPO in a fridge when they raided the home of Michele Viola, one of the team's trainers. | |
Altopack's sports director Elso Frediani and a pharmacist, Andrea Bianchi, are the other suspects under house arrest. Lucca police are also investigating 17 others. | |
Police searches also took place in Pistoia, Livorno and Bergamo provinces. |