LUCCA (ITALY): A series of arrests have been made following an anti-doping bust of one of Italy's biggest amateur cycling teams, police said on Thursday.
Police raided several premises in the Tuscan town of Lucca and detained the team owner, a former sports director, and a pharmacist who allegedly supplied the cyclists with drugs prohibited without a prescription.
It is claimed the team president encouraged riders, many of whom were very young, to use the doping products which included growth hormones and opiate-based painkillers.
The police anti-doping unit in Lucca was launched after the death of Linas Rumsas, an amateur cyclist and son of former Lithuanian professional cyclist Raimondas, who died following a heart attack in May 2017.
The investigation that led to Thursday's arrests however does not concern 21-year-old Rumsas, who the prosecutor in Lucca suspects died as a result of the use of banned doping substances.