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Postal probe Official inquiry opened into doping allegations
PARIS (AP) -- A French prosecutor has opened a judicial inquiry against the US Postal cycling team led by Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong for inciting the use of drugs, judicial sources said. The inquiry, which was opened Wednesday, will be led by French Judge Sophie-Helene Chateau and will seek to determine whether the team violated a 1999 law concerning the prevention and suppression of the use of drugs and blood products, the judicial sources said, speaking on customary anonymity. The opening of the inquiry follows a decision in mid-October to begin an investigation into the allegations the team may have used doping products during the 1999 Tour de France that Armstrong won. The results of the inquiry could lead to charges being pressed. Armstrong and the team have repeatedly stressed that they respected anti-doping rules and have denied the allegations. The preliminary judicial investigation began on the basis of an anonymous letter saying suspicious behavior had been detected by a TV crew of the state-run France 3 during the Tour. The initial investigation was carried out by police drugs experts. The author of the letter claimed that suspicious activity had been carried out around vehicles accompanying the US Postal team. The letter allegedly said that several times two people had loaded a car registered in Germany with garbage sacks and discreetly gotten rid of them. Inside the bags were compresses and syringes, the letter said. The former trainer of the Festina team had implied that Armstrong, who has won the Tour de France twice in a row, used doping products. Armstrong, who recovered from testicular cancer to rise to the top of the cycling world, has been dogged by allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs. The Tour de France was shaken and almost brought to a halt by a drug scandal in 1998, and the Festina team was kicked out when a physiotherapist was caught with a stash of drugs in a team car. Revelations of widespread doping emerged earlier this fall during the Festina doping trial.
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