Spanish (former) team doctor arrested with AICAR in his luggage

Since March 8th a sports doctor of Colombian origin has been in jail in Spain. He was caught in an airport with AICAR (and TB-500, the stuff Wim Vansevenant was caught with and a soigneur connected to BMC had in his possesion) in his luggage.

Doctor Beltran worked for (Continental Team) Liberty Seguros (Nuno Ribeiro, Isidro Nozal and Hector Guerra) and Xacobeo Galicia (Garcia Dapena) where he was sacked in the 2009 Vuelta, says el Pais

One rider is quoted in the El Pais article saying: “Riders take it one month before a race and are stronger and remain fitter with AICAR”

Garcia Dapena saw his two-year doping suspension reduced and the fine of almost a €100,000 was  remitted. The reason for this is that there’s a law stating that if sportsmen help in the fight against doping they get some redemption. The Spaniard helped in the Operación Skype as it’s called. Garcia Dapena is now retired.

Traceable or untraceable

The El País article states that AICAR is easy to trace which I think is not true. As you can read in my article it generates metabolites in the urine but AICAR closely ressembles an endogenous substance so it’s hard to judge what was already in the body and what is doping. It’s most certainly not as simple to trace as the Spanish say it is. UCI-chairman McQuaid even was quoted saying it’s untraceable. This is a question of semantics.

In the end everything that enters the human body can be traced if you know what you’re looking for, if you have time and most importantly if you have money which is what WADA and national anti-doping authorities lack. 

“Financial constraints and a general boredom with the issue could undermine the fight against doping”, the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA said.  “WADA is not shielded from the economic difficulties of recent times and has had to accept and adjust to the nought percent budget increase approved by our foundations. Maybe the time has come for WADA to look for further contributors,” WADA-president John Fahey told reporters.

The original AICAR article is here.