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Latest Italian Drug Bust Raid.

Serbian coach arrested and 12 pro cyclists too.

New form of EPO among the evidence.

In Italian here:-
http://sportitalia.com/shownews.aspx?id=5370

Loose translation of the names:-


Between the professionals involved there are Davide Rebellin, Emanuele Saddles(Sella), Matteo Priamo, Andrea Moletta, Julio Munoz, November Amerigo, Sasa Gajicic and Francesco Revere, while the three sports managers denounced I am Dark Simone (Simone Mori former Amica Chips), Donato Giuliani (National Electric Hadimec) and Rodolfo Boulders (Massi)(Team Boulders).
 
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This is hilarious stuff. Saddles and the friar of San Bonifacio, they were just caught/served a suspension and have been apprehended already...:rolleyes:
 

Dr. Maserati

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Bala Verde said:
This is hilarious stuff. Saddles and the friar of San Bonifacio, they were just caught/served a suspension and have been apprehended already...:rolleyes:

Hasn't Sella received a reduced sentence for co-operating? If he did then this may be result from that.
 
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This morning, Italian police arrested failed pro, turned coach Aleksandar Nikacevic for being the mastermind behind a huge doping ring. Nikacevic, A former head of Serbian cycling was arrested with thirty other people, including around a dozen pro cyclists by the Padua police in north Italy. I should be writing about the looming Alps and (I did really start to hope) the first ‘cleanish’ Tour de France for years. Now, I am left wondering should I really let myself trust the victories.
Aleksandar turned pro with Team GS Padovani in 1999 and did well enough to get a stagiaire contract with Mapei-Quick Step in 2000 and on to full pro contract with Pro tour team Alessio until 2002. A bright future- What happened? What turned a dazzling young star, into the core of a drugs network?
He became Team manager in 2005 of the Continental Team Aerospace Engineering Pro Equipe and in 2006 led Continental Team Endeka. Officially the 31 year old was retired from the pro ranks, now assisting the amateur Partizan Belgrade team. Unofficially, it appears he had used, mentored doping and was now making a living from the sale of and advice on the administering of drugs to young cyclists; cyclists with big dreams- exactly like he had had in 1999. {The tour coverage of today’s stage has come on the TV and the team jerseys have once again lost their colour.}

10,000 vials of drugs were seized during searches carried out in ten regions of Italy
Nikacevic is suspected of the harbouring and smuggling of all of these 10,000 drugs, including EPO. This wasn’t one dodgy doctor or bent coach but a massive network. Among the 30 others arrested were representatives of pharmaceutical companies, five doctors and three team managers of cycling teams.
A doping chain from production in the factory, on to the team bus and direct to the finish line.
The dismantling of this network was made possible by tapping and surveillance video of a surgery and my initial thought was “Why should the police have to ‘police’ our sport? Should we not be doing it?”
Well I am delighted they did. 10,000 vials is a major operation. The Italian cycling community had to have known about this and did nothing. Nikacevic and his accomplices should be arrested, as it is a crime. A crime to our sport and a crime against the young pro cyclists whose careers and health are being abused by drugs. Crimes that for too long, cycling’s elite racing structure have turned a blind eye to.
When Ricco and Kohl dismantled last year’s tour they were banned and demonized. They stood alone, guilty in the headlines. No coach, no doctor, no pharmaceutical rep and NO Aleksandar Nikacevic standing beside him- every bit as a guilty as he.
 
Assuming this is all true, it's nasty. Nasty and deep. Again, very good sleuthing Mellow. You and Bala are indeed the forum detectives. Good work too Truth, great post.

We've suspected (well, at least I have) that re-engineered Cera from China has been in the marketplace now for some time. So my guess is that this might be what we're looking at. If you think about it, Cera is the perfect doping drug because of it's lasting effects, but difficulty in detecting. But if you remove WADA's ability to see the code...

However, this section from Truth's post really caught my eye:

Among the 30 others arrested were representatives of pharmaceutical companies, five doctors and three team managers of cycling teams.

This hearkens back to Diick Pound's book where he noted that the majority of EPO manufactured was consumed and used not by medical patients, but by endurance athletes, and the pharmaceutical companies not only turned a blind eye, but were happy about it, as it made them even more profit. Despite Pound's claims, I never thought I'd read that reps from pharmaceutical companies would get directly involved like that, and arrested. Wow.

Assuming this is true, to have the ring be that big, and that vast, is very telling. Especially ugly as it seems to be directed at U23 riders on the surface.

Truth is right, as I, Blackcat, Joe P, BroDeal and others have said several times, they need to go after the support system. No one in their right mind thinks all these riders just order these drugs off the internet and do all the doping themselves. If the UCI (ASO, WADA, USADA, take your pick) are serious about doping, they've got to pull their heads out of their rectums and see this bigger picture. Hopefully, hopefully, this will serve as a wake-up call and won't get brushed under the rug or ignored.
 
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the truth. said:
This morning, Italian police arrested failed pro, turned coach Aleksandar Nikacevic for being the mastermind behind a huge doping ring. Nikacevic, A former head of Serbian cycling was arrested with thirty other people, including around a dozen pro cyclists by the Padua police in north Italy. I should be writing about the looming Alps and (I did really start to hope) the first ‘cleanish’ Tour de France for years. Now, I am left wondering should I really let myself trust the victories.
Aleksandar turned pro with Team GS Padovani in 1999 and did well enough to get a stagiaire contract with Mapei-Quick Step in 2000 and on to full pro contract with Pro tour team Alessio until 2002. A bright future- What happened? What turned a dazzling young star, into the core of a drugs network?
He became Team manager in 2005 of the Continental Team Aerospace Engineering Pro Equipe and in 2006 led Continental Team Endeka. Officially the 31 year old was retired from the pro ranks, now assisting the amateur Partizan Belgrade team. Unofficially, it appears he had used, mentored doping and was now making a living from the sale of and advice on the administering of drugs to young cyclists; cyclists with big dreams- exactly like he had had in 1999. {The tour coverage of today’s stage has come on the TV and the team jerseys have once again lost their colour.}

10,000 vials of drugs were seized during searches carried out in ten regions of Italy
Nikacevic is suspected of the harbouring and smuggling of all of these 10,000 drugs, including EPO. This wasn’t one dodgy doctor or bent coach but a massive network. Among the 30 others arrested were representatives of pharmaceutical companies, five doctors and three team managers of cycling teams.
A doping chain from production in the factory, on to the team bus and direct to the finish line.
The dismantling of this network was made possible by tapping and surveillance video of a surgery and my initial thought was “Why should the police have to ‘police’ our sport? Should we not be doing it?”
Well I am delighted they did. 10,000 vials is a major operation. The Italian cycling community had to have known about this and did nothing. Nikacevic and his accomplices should be arrested, as it is a crime. A crime to our sport and a crime against the young pro cyclists whose careers and health are being abused by drugs. Crimes that for too long, cycling’s elite racing structure have turned a blind eye to.
When Ricco and Kohl dismantled last year’s tour they were banned and demonized. They stood alone, guilty in the headlines. No coach, no doctor, no pharmaceutical rep and NO Aleksandar Nikacevic standing beside him- every bit as a guilty as he.
Stevic has to be caught up in this, does it stem from a few years ago. I mean the legacy, there are obviously the most recent peloton.
 

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blackcat said:
Stevic has to be caught up in this, does it stem from a few years ago. I mean the legacy, there are obviously the most recent peloton.

IIRC Stevic came the Areospace team with this dirtbag DS and another rider. He instantly won every race for a few months.
 
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Eva Maria said:
IIRC Stevic came the Areospace team with this dirtbag DS and another rider. He instantly won every race for a few months.
I wouldnt say Stevic won all the smaller races. He won a few smaller races. He won the Nature Valley Gran Prix but after that he couldnt get it again. He had good talent but he was not a stage winning TDF calibre rider. He was a very respectable athlete but not in the top 50 for overall G.C. on mountain stages and such.
 
How many vials of EPO would be required for an athlete's typical annual program? Take 10K divide it by that and come up with the number of athletes the operation's current inventory could supply. I wonder what their inventory turnover is per year. Two, three, four?
 

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BroDeal said:
How many vials of EPO would be required for an athlete's typical annual program? Take 10K divide it by that and come up with the number of athletes the operation's current inventory could supply. I wonder what their inventory turnover is per year. Two, three, four?

I was trying to work out the same thing. Wasn't Willy caught with approx 250 vials of EPO in the back of his Fiat? That was for 8 riders for 3 weeks.
 
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Dr. Maserati said:
I was trying to work out the same thing. Wasn't Willy caught with approx 250 vials of EPO in the back of his Fiat? That was for 8 riders for 3 weeks.

So the riders would get two shots of EPO a day? :eek:
 
In this morning's Gazzetta dello Sport.
by Claudio Ghisalberti

"Via Col Doping" ("Away With Doping"): one arrest, 30 denounced


"Via col doping": Aleksandar Nikacevic finished in handcuffs yesterday, while for another 30, among whom 12 professionals, pharaceutical reps, 5 doctors, 3 DSs and a minority age swimmer formal accusations have been discharged. The charges range from writing perscriptions, commercializing, dispensing and usage and marketing of illegal doping products among which Cera, Epo, soatropina (GH), Igf, insulin, testosterone, various types of anabolic steroids, gonadotropina (Hcg), corticoids and other products such as viagra.

"Via col doping" is the code name for the sting operation coordinated by finacial police officer, Benedetto Roberti, of the Padova divison and put into action by the national Guardia della Finanza. What caused the investigation has been the full collaboration of cyclist Emanuele Sella after his positive result for Cera in 2008, for which he has been disqualified till August 18th. For the investigators, Nikacevic, a 31 year old Serbian and ex pro with Alessio and ex DS of his national team is the nodal point of the case. The most recent case Nikacevic would also be innvolved in, has been with a pro for which insulin has been found hidden beneath his hotel bed where he was staying just prior to the Italian National Championship race this past June 28th. Nikacevic's arrest confirms that the Serbian path, of which much has been spoken about recently, is indeed a hot one.

Among the pro's involved are Davide Rebellin, Matteo Priamo, Andrea Moletta, Marco Ghiselli, David Munoz, Daniele Ricci, Armado Camelo, Amerigo Novembrini, Sasa Gajicic and Francesco Rivera, while the thre DSs accused are Simone Mori (Amica Chips-Aeronautica Militare) who would have had a supplier's role, donato Giuliani (Nazionale Elettronica) and Radolfo Massi (Team Massi) who was allready involved with the Festina case at the 98 Tour. But others of less note also had important roles. Dusan Ganic, for example, constituted along with Nikacevic, the spinal column of the system. Paolo Bonin was the liaison between Nikacevic and Matteo Priamo and Emanuele Sella. Luigino Miotti, ex DS of Filmop, was the source who furnished Andrea Moletta, stopped during last year's Giro by his team Gerolsteiner because during the event his father along with Miotti himself were stopped in their car in whcih was sequestered an enormous quantity of viagra. For the supplier of Cera to Davide Rebillin, silver medalist at the Bejing Olympics, a medic from Padova (E. L.) has rather been indicated, who has allready been associated with other doping investigations.

There is also a video, the fruit of hidden camera data on location carried out in the actual studio of this medic, in which is seen a minority age female swimmer on a regional team placed under a intraveinus transfussion called ozonoterapia (a blood enrichment therapy through autologus transfussion) while her father sat in the waiting room thumbing through a newspaper.

Another noteworthy find in the investigation has been "Furia," a cicloamatore who furnished every type of doping product given to him by Stefano Ingegneri to amatuer cyclists for their Sunday races.

My conclusions: all second rate squadre even cicloamatori. A mere mole hill in a mountain range. It's like big time tax evaders in this country who get away with murder, while the peons trying to make it to the end of the month and hide some of their earnings get screwed by th investigators.
 
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rhubroma said:
In this morning's Gazzetta dello Sport.
by Claudio Ghisalberti

"Via Col Doping" ("Away With Doping"): one arrest, 30 denounced


"Via col doping": Aleksandar Nikacevic finished in handcuffs yesterday, while for another 30, among whom 12 professionals, pharaceutical reps, 5 doctors, 3 DSs and a minority age swimmer formal accusations have been discharged. The charges range from writing perscriptions, commercializing, dispensing and usage and marketing of illegal doping products among which Cera, Epo, soatropina (GH), Igf, insulin, testosterone, various types of anabolic steroids, gonadotropina (Hcg), corticoids and other products such as viagra.

think that Gonadotropin was the inspiration and theme of Matthew Barney's Cremaster :D and if you see the type of freaks those dope created, :Dyou would not be taking it.

Where is Joe Papp for an opinion?
 
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Mellow Velo said:
Serbian coach arrested and 12 pro cyclists too.

Not only a coach, but a former national team head coach.
This doesn't surprise me at all that a Serbian coach was involved. Doping in Serbian cycling is condoned if not encouraged from a very early age. A lot of doping products being used in southeastern Europe/Balkans comes from Thailand and Bulgaria. In all the countries of the region it is ridiculously easy to get your hands on Testosterone, HGH, Deca-Durabolin (Nandrolone), Clenbuterol, EPO, etc. All you have to do is go down to your local gym/bike shop and ask for it; for the right price, you can get pretty much anything you like.
Furthermore, anti-doping is virtually non-existent.

Not really surprising to see Sella and Ricco connected to the case. Those two never showed the slightest bit of remorse.
 
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craig1985 said:
So the riders would get two shots of EPO a day? :eek:

Voet was carrying a lot more than what one team needed for a GT. Armstrong's 1999 test results show that he used EPO three times during the Tour. Even accepting one or two injections that were missed because he was not tested during some stages, it was still only a handful of injections. Hamilton's doping schedule and the schedules from BALCO show EPO use every two or three days.

Eposino used to sell prefilled syringes with 4000 iu per syringe. These were intended as a single dose. Cost was about $600 for ten syringes. They would also sell single dose vials with 3000 iu in them.

Assuming one vial equals one dose, heavy usage equals one dose every three days, and heavy usage is done for six months per year then that would be 60 doses per athlete. 160 athletes for 10K vials. Turn the inventory over twice per year and that would be 320 athletes. If prices are comparable to Eposino, annual sales would be $1.2M.

It would also require 320 athletes willing to pay $3600 per year for EPO. That seems like too many paying that much.
 
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Alpe d'Huez said:
This hearkens back to Diick Pound's book where he noted that the majority of EPO manufactured was consumed and used not by medical patients, but by endurance athletes, and the pharmaceutical companies not only turned a blind eye, but were happy about it, as it made them even more profit. .

Hence the Amgen TOC....Giving back to the community that supports them!
 
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blackcat said:
think that Gonadotropin was the inspiration and theme of Matthew Barney's Cremaster :D and if you see the type of freaks those dope created, :Dyou would not be taking it.

Where is Joe Papp for an opinion?

Strangely, I am pretty sure he is in Italy right now.
 

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