A Home Search, a Team Suspension and Bernucci’s Five-Year Ban

Italian authorities searched Lorenzo Bernucci’s home in Quarrata in April 2010 during a doping investigation. His team, Lampre-Farnese, suspended him. In February 2011, the Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping tribunal imposed a five-year ban. Bernucci maintained his innocence and had not tested positive in the investigation.

Officers from the Guardia di Finanza in Padua and the Nas police unit in Florence searched the homes of Bernucci and his teammate Alessandro Petacchi. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported on April 6 that authorities were said to have seized products at Bernucci’s home, including vials that still needed analysis. The newspaper also reported the seizure of albumin and sibutramine, which it identified as prohibited substances. It described albumin as a blood diluent and sibutramine as a stimulant and appetite suppressant. The report did not identify what the untested vials contained.

Lampre suspended Bernucci. Petacchi described a different result at his home: He told the newspaper that officers had given him a report recording a negative search. They also checked two properties belonging to his wife, he said, during a search lasting about five hours. He described the officers as courteous but the experience as unpleasant, and said he did not understand his connection to the case.

The searches were part of an inquiry led by Padua prosecutor Benedetto Roberti. La Gazzetta reported that it had begun after cyclist Emanuele Sella’s positive test following the 2008 Giro. The Associated Press later reported that the investigation involved wiretaps and testimony. Neither Bernucci nor Petacchi had tested positive in the case, and both maintained their innocence. Petacchi remained under investigation in February 2011.

For Bernucci, the absence of a positive test in this inquiry was distinct from his earlier record. In 2007, he tested positive for an appetite suppressant and was fired by T-Mobile. La Gazzetta identified the substance as sibutramine and reported that he served a one-year suspension.

The later sanctions extended beyond Bernucci, but they were separate penalties. According to a CONI statement reported by the Associated Press, his wife, mother and father-in-law each received four-year bans; his brother received three years after being linked to blood doping by a Padua prosecutor. The bans barred the family members from involvement in sports events in Italy. Bernucci’s five-year ban was longer than the one he had served after his 2007 positive test.