Additional Testimony from Jesus Manzano in Operation Puerto:
He said he took EPO in 2000, 2001 and 2003 from Fuentes. The EPO was in a thermos. To avoid positive tests, a white powder was put into the penis to impair the urine. They also soaked human albumin or ICU serum to lower hematocrit. Then they took a pill that made them sweat a lot, a lot of liquids and peed it out.
He was given a prescription by Fuentes that he could fill at a pharmacy. He took HMG which balanced the testosterone to not test positive. And a female drug. He did not pay for the drugs; it was provided by Team Kelme.
Before starting the 2003 Tour he took two bags of blood. They were transported via their “carrier pigeon” Alberto Leon and hidden in cartons of wine. He was given cortisone, Synachten, Oxiglobin testosterone, canine hemoglobin. He injected 50ml. The transfusions were done in Valencia or Madrid with Fuentes and Merino; a month before doing the blood extractions they took EPO. They needed 12 days to not test positive.
He had taken Oxyglobin, a canine hemoglobin. He was chasing Virenque on stage 9 and started to feel bad. He felt cold, nauseous, dizzy and then fell to the ground unconscious. He woke up in an ambulance. He was told not to say anything because it was France and they could all go to jail.
After feeling bad from one blood bag he was given Urbason tiritera. When he returned to the clinic they gave him more Urbason to counteract his reaction to the blood. He felt a lot of blood pressure in his head and swelling. It took nearly 40 minutes to treat.
He thinks the cortisone he took during the Tour did something to his knee and it hasn’t been the same since.
He said he was forced by the team and didn’t do this voluntarily. If he would have said no he would have been kicked to the street.
His blood bag was identified by his initials and his birthdate. Belda gave them some drugs that included caffeine or lactic acid. Fuentes and his wife Yolanda did the others.
When he later went public they called him a liar.
” The Actovegin and Oxiglobin is for animals. Someone was playing around on the computer and said, ‘Some days you’re barking and other days you’re mooing “.
Joan Vendrell, now deceased, was the Manager of the team … who put the money for doping products .”
Pathologist Francisco Aguanell Glieto, age 52, died of a heart attack yesterday, the day before he was supposed to testify at Operation Puerto. He was to defend a report prepared for Manzano. Manzano had gone to court on December 20. The report was signed January 8 and three days later came the indictment. Spanish newspaper AS reported that in the report it said transfusions can be deadly. Manzano had told the pathologist about the bad reactions he’d had to the blood doping.
Aguanell’s report cited two kinds of blood doping, that from another person (heterologous) and from oneself (autologous). Using one’s own blood is safer from infectious diseases though it works a little more slowly. But the autologous method risks contamination, handling and storage problems and if done outside a hospital setting as most atheletes are, could be fatal. Blood stored at 39 degrees fahrenheit can last 3-4 weeks. The frozen blood can last a few years.
Viscosity . Aguanell Francisco concludes his report with a final risk: “Blood transfusions in athletes’ resting hematocrit increases above optimal values. One consequence is that the viscosity of the blood increases. Can have negative health consequences such as cardiac risk of thrombosis and pulmonary arterial and cerebral vascular accidents. “
