Rogge: Belgium center of doping trade

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- IOC president Jacques Rogge called Belgium -- his home nation -- a hub of the international doping trade after a top Belgian cyclist was charged with possession of banned substances.

Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke was fired by his Domo-Farm Frites team on Thursday after police claimed they found steroids, endurance-enhancing EPO and morphine at his home.

Police targeted Vandenbroucke after his French medical adviser, Bernard Sainz, was stopped with products in his car that authorities called suspicious.

"That Sainz was driving around here with doping products in his car proves once more that Belgium is and remains a hub for these kind of things," Rogge was quoted as saying in Friday's editions of De Standaard.

He called on Belgian authorities to be more vigilant in combating drug trafficking. Sainz was stopped by police for speeding, and his car was searched because police said he was not carrying proper insurance documents.

"It is too bad the case was started only because of a routine traffic control," Rogge said. "It'd be much better if the judicial authorities would take more initiative, more action against trafficking. Believe me, they would find a lot more."

Rogge, elected president of the International Olympic Committee in July, has made the anti-doping effort a central theme of his presidency.

"The cheats must get out," he was quoted as saying.

If convicted, Vandenbroucke faces a prison term of one to five years.

 

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