The custody of a doctor and a physiotherapist from the Arkéa-Samsic team continued on Tuesday evening as part of a preliminary investigation opened for suspicions of doping on the Tour de France, announced the Marseille prosecutor's office .
"At this time, the custody is still continuing, hearings being in progress," said prosecutor Dominique Laurens in a statement released in the early evening, specifying also that riders of the team had "been heard in free hearing of suspects ”Monday.
The magistrate announced Monday the opening of a preliminary investigation, referring in particular to the discovery "of many health products including drugs in their personal affairs, but also and above all a method that can be qualified as doping".
According to details provided to AFP by a source familiar with the matter confirming information from Journal du Dimanche and L'Equipe, a search carried out by the Central Office for the Fight against Attacks on the Environment and Public Health targeting several riders from the Arkéa-Samsic team, including Colombian Dayer Quintana, Nairo's brother, and members of the medical team, was conducted.
The search, according to the two newspapers, took place on September 16, before the end of the Tour, near Méribel (Savoie).
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Tour de France: an investigation into suspicion of doping in the Arkea-Samsic team
The riders heard, who are not named by the prosecutor, are suspected of having detained "without medical justification" a "prohibited substance or method" which may have served as doping, within the framework of the Tour de France.
The two members of the medical team, meanwhile, had been in police custody since late Monday morning in particular for "administration and prescription to an athlete, without medical justification, of a substance or method prohibited in the context of an event. athletic".
"The elements collected during the searches will require additional investigations, in particular analyzes" and new hearings, added the prosecutor of Marseille.
"I have nothing to hide"
Nairo Quintana
Nairo Quitana has defended himself from any doping.
"I mean that no doping substance has ever been found (...) I have nothing to hide and have never had anything to hide (...) I have been throughout my sporting life a clean runner, ”the Colombian said in a statement Tuesday evening.
The maximum penalties incurred by caregivers are five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
The runners risk five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros for “illicit transport and possession of poisonous substances”.
The general manager of the Breton team Emmanuel Hubert declared Monday “of course to support (his) riders”.
"But if it turned out that at the end of the current investigation, elements came to confirm the veracity of doping practices, the team would immediately dissociate itself from such acts and would immediately take the necessary measures. impose ”, he added.
This case is the first notable for several years on the Tour de France after many years marked by police raids, during the event, since the Festina affair in 1998.
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