Internationally recognized track coach looking at potential 4 years in jail for part in steroid distribution.
After the entire Russian national team was suspended from being able to compete in the past Winter Olympics, more and more national teams around the world have taken a much closer look at their own athletes to be sure that they are able to avoid this kind of scandal.
It’s possible that none have taken this crackdown on performance-enhancing drugs quite as seriously as the Spanish have.
Numerous investigations have already been conducted throughout the entire Spanish national team, and many of the coaches and athletes found to be using performance-enhancing drugs or supplying anabolic steroids have been caught and prosecuted.
Just recently, and internationally recognized truly legendary track coach, a Mr. Jama Aden, was busted providing athletes with steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs and now faces a potential four year imprisonment in a Spanish prison because of it.
According to reports coming out of the biggest newspaper in all of Spain, prosecutors have been conducting a three year investigation into Mr. Aden, culminating in charges brought up not only against him but also against many of his staff and a number of his top athletic clients as well.
Working closely with the International Association of Athletic Federations, the Spanish government, the Spanish national team, and the Spanish national police all combined together to create a task force that was investigating the training camp run by Mr. Aden.
Interestingly enough, however, all of the athletes that had been charged with using performance-enhancing drugs provided by Mr. Aden and his associates have tested negative for the substances in their blood upon further inspection.
None of the athletes that Mr. Aden worked with have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the past, which is certainly going to make the prosecution of this legendary coach more than a bit of an uphill battle.
At the same time, the International Association of Athletic Federations in the Spanish Agency for Health Protection in Sport have identified eight different performance-enhancing substances and medications that were seized during the raid on the Aden training camp.
They have yet to be able to link the distribution of these performance-enhancing drugs to any of the athletes, or even conclusively prove that Aden was distributing the substances to his athletes rather than just using them himself, but there is plenty of evidence still to sift through.
Right now, the charges that have been leveled against Aden by the Spanish government and Spanish prosecutors in conjunction with those international agencies relate more to the possession of the substances than anything else. Many in the international sports community continue to back Aden, and feel that he has been inappropriately railroaded and is being set up to take the fall for crimes that he did not (or has yet to have been conclusively proven to) commit.
It is going to be very interesting to see how this court case shakes out, particularly since Aden is currently based out of Qatar. Even if the prosecution chooses to push forward with charges against Aden and his training staff, many in the legal community feel that it is likely that the government of Qatar would be able to extradite these individuals to Spain so that they could stand trial.
For now, the case is at a bit of an impasse, but many feel that everything will be resolved conclusively by the end of 2018 or the middle of 2019 – one way or another. Those that follow the sport of track are sure to follow this drama as closely as they are able to, and so far the Spanish newspapers and media have been splashing details across all of their sports pages.
Source: https://www.steroid.com/blog/Top-Track-Coach-Jama-Aden-Faces-Four-Years-in-Spanish-Prison-for-Allegedly-Giving-Athletes-Steroids-and-EPO.php