TB500/Peptides named as in-use substances, does anyone know the unnamed individual at Ineos, can't be too hard to figure it out?
ARD can reveal that numerous members or customers of the dismantled Erfurt blood doping network have escaped punishment. An accomplice of doping doctor Mark S. has been working undisturbed for years at leading team Ineos Grenadiers.
www.sportschau.de
ARD can reveal that numerous members or customers of the dismantled Erfurt blood doping network have escaped punishment. An accomplice of doping doctor Mark S. has been working undisturbed for years at leading team Ineos Grenadiers.
Von Hajo Seppelt, Sebastian Krause, Lea Löffler, Tom Mustroph und Jörg Mebus
Just before the start of the Tour de France, cycling is being caught up by its dark doping past – partly because of a statement made by Munich's chief public prosecutor Kai Gräber in an interview with ARD's doping editorial team.
“It may well be that at some point, incidents that occurred in the past can no longer be punished due to the statute of limitations," he said. Gräber was in charge of "Operation Aderlass" (Operation Bloodletting), which led to the dismantling of the Erfurt blood doping network surrounding doctors and mastermind Mark S.
This issue posed major challenges for Gräber at the time. Many of the suspected offences had already exceeded the statute of limitations under criminal law. Gräber emphasises that he could not initiate proceedings if it was "absolutely clear" that "no prosecution could be brought."
Mark S. accomplice now in Team Ineos
For professional sport - especially cycling, which today likes to present itself as reformed after countless doping scandals - this fact raises new and sensitive questions. Such figures are likely to remains involved in the sport for many years. According to Gräber, no further investigations were carried out against up to 20 suspects from the blood doping ring or with contacts to it as part of "Operation Aderlass".
Few were subsequently prosecuted by the sports courts, which, unlike the criminal courts, are only subject to a ten-year statute of limitations – for example, professional cyclists Alessandro Petacchi and Kristijan Koren, both clients of Mark S.
According to ARD research, up to 14 people, some of whom are under serious suspicion, got off scot-free, most of them from cycling. The ARD doping editorial team found one of them during its research for “Im Windschatten” (In the Slipstream).
One of the men now holds an important position at Team Ineos Grenadiers, the successor to Team Sky, by far the most successful team in cycling in the 2010s. The man was also part of the team when Briton Chris Froome dominated the sport almost at will and won the Tour de France three times in a row (2015 to 2017). There are no reasonable grounds for suspicions against Froome in connection with this person or Team Sky.
Because the sport's anti-doping organisations apparently did not investigate in a timely manner and the statute of limitations has now expired, the media is no longer allowed to disclose the person's identity for reasons of personal rights. For this reason, the man's name is not mentioned in the film.
Mediation by ‘Maestro Baltazar’
The suspicions against the man come from chat logs found on mobile phones seized by Mark S. during the "Aderlass" investigation. The ARD doping editorial team has been given access to the original logs, which contain chat histories between Mark S. and the man who is still active in cycling today with Team Ineos, as well as another accomplice.
The suspicions arising from the chats are serious and even suggest that the man may have played an important role in Mark S.'s network. For example, he introduced S. to a suspected doping dealer, whom the Erfurt doctor later recommended to his clients as a supplier of banned substances such as Aicar and TB500. Code name: Maestro Baltazar.
Financier for blood doping equipment
According to the correspondence, he also acted as a financier for the third man involved in the chat. This money was used to purchase blood doping equipment from companies in Vienna and Ljubljana. Payment was always made in cash, and the trio mostly used Slovenian prepaid mobile phone cards for communication, which the two accomplices organised for Mark S.
The men moved cautiously in the cycling business. ‘I'll be at the track on Sunday, but it's better if people only see me in the group,’ Mark S. wrote in the run-up to the main race at a world championships.
According to messages written in English, the man, who still works in cycling today, also helped the blood doping doctor with his insider knowledge when it came to travel planning. "Do you already know which hotel the Slovenians are staying at for the World Championships? I need a room from Wednesday." The man also helped plan a visit by the Erfurt doctor to the Tour de France.
The current Ineos employee asked the doctor elsewhere whether he still had any of an unspecified substance in stock that he had previously organised for a German racing team: "If so, can you bring it for the boys?"
Ineos: ‘No comment’
The man did not respond to a detailed enquiry from the ARD doping editorial team. The management of Team Ineos replied: "We do not wish to comment at this time." It is unclear whether the team is aware of the man's past. It is also unclear whether the employee will show up at the Tour de France, which starts on 5 July in Lille.
Some of Mark S.'s accomplices who did not benefit from the statute of limitations received heavy suspended sentences in the "bloodletting" trial. The doctor himself was sentenced to years in prison and also lost his licence to practise medicine for life.
The fact that one of Erfurt's accomplices is still able to work in sport completely unrestricted is described by Cologne sports law professor Jan F. Orth as "difficult to bear". The approach taken by the organisations concerned can be described as 'highly negligent at the very least', Orth told ARD, especially in view of one remarkable fact: The names of the man who still works for Ineos and Mark S.'s other chat partner were even mentioned during the bloodletting trial in the Munich courtroom when parts of the chats were read out – and yet nothing happened afterwards. Orth said that this was fundamentally how "the fight against doping will fail".
"Carrying them to the hunt"
Orth expressly defends the Munich public prosecutor's office - which is, after all, a centre for doping offences - in this regard. It is "not a source of information or intelligence". Gräber did not want to comment in detail on this issue in the ARD interview for legal reasons, as the proceedings had long since been concluded.
However, Orth sees a clear failure in the fact that the men were not prosecuted under sports law at the time and that one of them was able to pursue a career in one of the world’s most successful teams. "This once again underlines the image that the responsible ladies and gentlemen and organisations in the fight against doping, at least in cycling, still need to be hunted down."
ITA still investigating in 2025
The International Cycling Union (UCI), together with the International Testing Agency (ITA), which runs anti-doping activities on its behalf, did not mention the Ineos employee's past in their responses to the ARD's enquiries. The question of how long the organisations had known about the specific case also remain unanswered.
The ITA, which has only been responsible for cycling since 2021, stated that it had investigated unspecified circumstances "in early 2025" after receiving "new information from the German authorities" – apparently after it had got wind of the ARD's investigations.
"The outcome of this investigation did not allow the ITA to refer a potential case to the UCI," both organisations said in almost identical statements. Apparently, their hands were tied due to the statute of limitations – no new grounds for suspicion were found.
Slovenian company again under scrutiny
During "Operation Aderlass" six years ago, it became clear that the medical technology company Medico Tehna in Ljubljana had played an important role in the doping network, where Mark S. had also received technical support for his business. And the company is seemingly still open to questionable deals.
Disguised as a sports management company in cycling, the ARD Doping Editorial Team received a commitment from the company to purchase and deliver a blood doping machine worth up to 50,000 euros. According to its own statements, Medico Tehna is only permitted to sell to medical institutions.
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