Veterinarians, horse trainers, pharmacists… In total, eleven people are indicted in a vast international equine doping case which began in June 2020.
Among the 11 suspects indicted in the case of horse racing dopingis a veterinarian from the equine clinic in Meslay-du-Maine, in Mayenne, revealed on Monday France Blue.
“To date 11 people, including Benoît Gabeur, have been indicted and placed under judicial supervision, including a Spanish national and a Maltese national. They are racehorse trainers, pharmacists and veterinarians”, confirms to BFMTV.com the parquet floor of Bordeaux.
According to our colleagues from France Bleu, suspicious equipment as well as drugs prohibited in the context of trotting and galloping races were found at the home of Doctor Benoît Gabeur. An assertion disputed by the lawyer for the mis en cause, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, who contacted BFMTV.com after the initial publication of the article on Monday. She affirms that no search was carried out at the home of Doctor Gabeur, while that carried out at the equine clinic of Meslay-du-Maine did not make it possible to discover any prohibited doping product.
In this case, the brother and nephew of Benoît Gabeur, horse breeders in the southwest, have also been indicted since March 2022 for “equine doping, fraud in an organized gang, association of criminals and illegal exercise of the veterinary profession.
“Doping Pharmaceuticals”
The investigation began in June 2020 following “a report of packages delivered to a stable at the La Teste racecourse, in Gironde, and likely to contain doping pharmaceutical products”, specified last March the prosecution of Bordeaux in a press release.
As part of the ongoing judicial investigation, “searches were carried out in the places targeted by the investigators (homes of the suspects, stables, veterinary clinics, pharmacies and laboratories, etc.). Various pharmaceutical products intended for horses were seized , some of which, having marketing authorization in France, were prohibited from use in the context of trotting and galloping horse racing. They gave rise to checks and expertise which are still in progress”, the prosecution tells us.
The investigation is continuing at the Interregional Jurisdiction of Bordeaux and must still measure the extent of these suspicions of doping and determine how many trainers and owners in trotting and galloping have really benefited from these supply chains of doping products.
