http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/operacion-puerto-case-closed

What a joke. I don't even know what to say to this...

Not being a lawyer, even a DP one, leaves me with more questions than answers. It's true that the number of implicated riders calls out for some kind of punishment. Why is it that evidence can't be used for sanctions, even if the law in Spain was not broken? Is there some principle that evidence seized for one case can't be used in another? Seems weird to me; Canada border services blew the whistle on the 'clear' when it found it, even though it wasn't illegal (thanks Dave for that link). So what if they couldn't make the 'danger to puiblic health' charge stick? Why not give the evidence to the national federations for sanctions?

On the other hand, this does seem to to be a good argument for better sport fraud laws. If this battery of smoking guns can't get a conviction without the belated law in Spain, maybe we'd all better get busy lobbying our governments for those laws.

I take it the various national federations -- other sports included -- really didn't want to dig too deeply. Nothing's changed. I don't think it ever will, no matter how many deaths occur in the athletic world.

I've become so cynical.

A possible silver lining?

renewed as more institutions, notably the national and international cycling teams associations, joined in another appeal in July. But now, the decision not to release the case evidence for disciplinary purposes seems final

Or, just a good PR move to jump on the bandwagon when you knew it was destined to fail?

Dave.

Do you think it was only about exposing cycling? I thought the real bomb was the other athletes rumoured: tennis and soccer players....that would have been huge to blow that wide open.

So I'm not surprised that Puerto was squashed...too much $$$ in those sports to have opened that dossier wide open.