In the winter of 2011, Caruso had cause to fear that he would be back in Sicily more permanently, when the Italian Olympic Committee [CONI] requested a four-year ban for what it described as "complicity in the attempted acquisition of banned substances". The infraction dated back to Caruso's time as an amateur, when, at a 2007 training camp on the Stelvio, a fellow rider asked to be put in contact with a soigneur known for his doping links.
"My error was that I should have just said no. Instead, because I didn't want to say no, I said, 'Maybe – we'll see,' in a throwaway way," Caruso says.
That conversation came to the attention of CONI during their investigation of former Liquigas rider Gianni Da Ros, who was handed a 20-year ban (later reduced to four) for trafficking doping substances, and Caruso was summoned to Rome to give evidence.
"I went to Rome without a lawyer or anything because I was certain I hadn't done anything wrong. Instead, 10 months later, they told me I had incriminated myself with the statement I gave them," he says. "They said, 'You should have told us at the time that they were looking to get in contact with this guy.' In the end, [CONI argued that] it was as though I had collaborated with them."
In February 2012, CONI announced that Caruso had been handed a backdated, one-year suspension, as well as a €500 fine. It meant that he could continue his career uninterrupted, although he considered appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to have the blemish excised from his record altogether.
"I didn't earn enough to pay for that," he says now. "Only people who have the money can get justice for themselves. It shouldn't be like that, but it is."