Judge Orders Blood Bags Destroyed in Puerto Doping Case A Spanish judge ordered on Tuesday the destruction of more than 200 blood bags seized in a raid of a major European doping ring that catered to elite athletes, thwarting an effort to uncover possibly one of the biggest doping scandals in history. Zipi/European Pressphoto Agency Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes arriving at a criminal court in Madrid, Spain, in February. Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria ruled in Spanish court that the bags of blood, plasma and red blood cells, as well as accompanying evidence, gathered in a 2006 raid of the office of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes could not be released to antidoping authorities because of Spain's privacy laws. Antidoping agencies and sports federations, including the World Anti-Doping Agency and Spain's antidoping agency, wanted the blood bags so they could try to identify athletes who had been Fuentes's clients and pursue doping cases against them. Only cyclists have been identified as working with Fuentes in the doping case called Operation Puerto. But Fuentes testified that his clients also included athletes in tennis, soccer, boxing and track and field. Dick Pound, the former chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency who was in charge of the agency when the Fuentes investigation began seven years ago, said the judge's decision to keep the evidence from antidoping authorities "seriously undermines the credibility of sport." He added that Spain risks becoming a haven for dopers unless it takes a harder line regarding athletes who use drugs to cheat. "This performance with the Fuentes case is typical of what we've seen with Spain," he said. For years, we've asked them for the evidence, but there was no cooperation at all from them. The courts were almost vigorous in making sure that none of the information saw the light of day. Fuentes was convicted Tuesday of endangering public health for his role in doping athletes by helping them transfuse their own blood and supplying them with performance-enhancing drugs. He was given a one-year suspended sentence and a four-year ban from practicing medicine and fined $6,000. He was not charged with breaking doping laws because, at the outset of the case, doping was not illegal in Spain. A strict antidoping law is currently being pushed through Spanish parliament, partly to help Madrid's bid for the 2020 Olympics. Pound said the Fuentes verdict could very well hurt Madrid's effort. Ana Munoz, the head of Spain's antidoping agency, said the agency was likely to appeal the judge's decision to withhold the evidence. In a news conference after the verdict, she said the judge's ruling was "clearly unsatisfactory." "It isn't over yet," she said. The decision to withhold the blood bags from antidoping authorities further perpetuates Spain's reputation as being soft on doping. For years, doping has been a crime in countries like France and Italy, but Spain has lagged behind in instituting those laws. When dealing with the 2010 doping case of the Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, the Spanish cycling federation cleared him of all charges after public support grew for Contador, one of the country's sporting heroes. Several high-profile politicians, including Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, publicly pressured the cycling federation to drop the doping charges against Contador, even though he had tested positive for the banned drug clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour. "There's no legal reason to justify sanctioning Contador," Zapatero said on the Spanish government's Twitter page. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later upheld a two-year ban against Contador. In the doping case of Alejandro Valverde, one of Spain's other top cyclists, the Italian Olympic committee had to take that matter into its own hands after Spain did nothing to punish the athlete for taking part in Fuentes's blood doping program. Italian antidoping authorities matched Valverde's DNA with the DNA inside one of the blood bags seized from Fuentes's medical office, then barred him from competition for two years because of it.