According to ARD research, numerous members or customers of the smashed Erfurt Blood Doping network got away. An accomplice by doping doctor Mark S. has been working undisturbed at the top team of Ineos Grenadier for years.
Cycling is shortly before the start of Tour de France obtained from his gloomy doping past-also because of a sentence that the Munich chief prosecutor Kai Gräber said in an interview with the ARD doping editorial team. “It may well be that at some point facts that have happened in the past can no longer be atoned due to limitation.”
Gräber was in charge of the “Operation Aderlass”, which led to the breakdown of the Erfurt blood doping network around doctors and mastermind Mark S.. At that time, Gräber presented the topic of limitation. Numerous of the suspected moments determined were already beyond the criminal limitation period. Graves emphasized that he could not initiate a procedure if “Completely clear” was, “That no law enforcement can be done”.
Complices by Mark S. Today in the Ineos team
This fact results in new, delicate questions for professional sport – especially cycling, which likes to be refined after countless doping scandals today. You should keep the scene busy for a long time.
According to the graves, up to 20 suspects from the blood doping ring or contact with this was not further determined as part of the “Operation Adlass”. A few were then discussed by the sports justice, which, in contrast to criminal law, is only slowed down by the limitation period after ten years – such as the cyclist Alessandro Petacchi and Kristijan Koren, both customers of Mark S.
After ARD research, up to 14 people, against the sometimes serious suspicions, were undoressed, most of them, most of them from cycling. The ARD doping editorial team now found one of them as part of the research on “in the slipstream”.
Sportschau-Anti-Doping expert Hajo Seppelt (right) in conversation with the accomplice of Mark S.
Today the man works in an important position at the Ineos Grenadier team, the successor to the Sky team, by far the most successful team in cycling in the 2010s. He also belonged to the team when the British Christopher Froome dominated the scene almost at will and three times in a row Tour de France won (2015 to 2017). There are no suspicion of doping from Froome in connection with this person and also from the Sky team.
Because the anti-doping organizations of sport had apparently not determined promptly and the limitation period has now occurred, the identity of the person may no longer disclose the personality law. That is why the man’s name is not mentioned in the film either.
Mediation of “Maestro Baltazar”
The present suspicions against the man come from chat protocols, which were found in the course of the “Aderlass” investigations in the cell phones seized by Mark S. The ARD doping editorial team has received an insight into the original protocols, which contains chat courses between Mark S. and the man still working in the Ineo team and another accomplice.
Chat protocols present the sports show increase the suspicions.
The suspicions resulting from the chats have it all and even suspect that the man in Mark S.’s network could have played an important role. For example, he conveyed a alleged doping dealer, which the Erfurt doctor later recommended to his customers as a doping agent supplier of prohibited means such as AICAR and TB500. Codename: Maestro Baltazar. Its true identity is still unknown to this day.
Guide for Blood doping utensils
In addition, according to correspondence, today’s Ineos employee appeared as a donor for a third party involved in the chat. This money was used to buy blood doping utensils from companies in Vienna and Ljubljana. It was always paid in cash, the trio mostly used Slovenian prepaid cell phone cards for communication, which organized the two accomplices for Mark S..
The men moved carefully in cycling business. “I’ll be on the track on Sunday, but it is better if people only see me in a group“, Mark S. wrote, for example, in the run -up to the main race at a World Cup.
The man who still works on cycling today helped the blood doping doctor, according to the communications written in English with his insider skills in travel planning. “Do you already know in which hotel the Slovenes are at the World Cup? I need a room from Wednesday”Mark S. asked the man. The accomplice also supported the planning for a visit to the Erfurt doctor at the Tour de France.
Today’s INEOS employee asked the doctor elsewhere whether he still had something from an unspecified substance in stock that he had already organized for the German racing team Milram: “If so, can you bring it for the boys?” Mark S. worked in 2008 and 2009 in the Milram team, which dissolved in 2010.
Ineos: “No comment”
The INEOS employee did not respond to a detailed request from the ARD doping editorial team. The management of the Ineos team replied: “We don’t want to comment at the present time.” It is uncertain whether the team knows about the man’s past. Likewise, whether the employee appears at the Tour de France, which starts on July 5 in Lille.
There is no statement from the Ineos team.
Helpers of Mark S., who did not benefit from the statute of limitations, received high suspended sentences in the “Addation” process. The doctor had to go to prison for years and also lost his license to life.
Cologne-based sports law professor Jan F. Orth describes that one of the Erfurt accomplices can still work completely undisturbed in sports to this day “as”difficult to bear “. The procedure of the organizations concerned is as “At least to the highest degree” The ARD said-especially with a view to a remarkable fact: The names of the man who is still working today with Ineos and the other chat partner of Mark S. fell even during the Aderlass process in the Munich courtroom when parts of the chats were read-and yet nothing happened afterwards. This is how it was said, Orth basically “The anti-doping fight fails”.
“Wear to hunt”
Orth explicitly protects the Munich public prosecutor – at least a focus facility for doping offenses. She is “No information and information center”. For legal reasons, Gräber no longer wanted to express himself in detail in the ARD interview on this topic because the procedure had long been completed.
Sports law professor Jan F. Orth fears that the anti-doping fight could fail.
However, Orth sees a clear misconduct in the fact that at that time the men remained undisturbed and one of the two career in one of the most successful teams in the scene: “This once again underlines the picture that the responsible ladies and men and organizations in anti-doping fight, at least in cycling, still have to be hunted.”
ITA still determined 2025
In their answers to the ARD inquiries, the Radsport World Association UCI and the International Test Agency ITA, who worked for him, did not have any word about the past of the INEO employee. The question of when the organizations know about the specific case also remained unanswered. The ITA, which has only been responsible for cycling since 2021, stated that an unspecified fact “in early 2025” after receipt “New information from the German authorities” To have examined-apparently after she got wind from the ARD research.
“The result of this investigation did not allow the ITA to forward a potential case to the UCI”it was said in the answers of both organizations almost the same word. Apparently they were also tied up because of the statute of limitations that have occurred – fresh suspicions were apparently not found.
The “Operation Aderlass” led to the destruction of the Erfurt blood doping network.
Slovenian company again noticeable
In the course of the “Operation Aderlass” six years ago, it became clear that the medical technology company Medico Tehna in Ljubljana played an important role in the doping network. Mark S. had also received technical support for his business there. And the company is apparently further receptive to questionable shops.
The ARD doping editorial team, disguised as a sports management company in cycling, received the company’s promise to buy and deliver a blood doping machine worth up to 50,000 euros. For Medico Tehna, it is only permitted for the sale to medical facilities.