Arrests made in Moroccan athletics doping investigation

Several Moroccan athletes have been arrested on suspicion of doping following a complaint by the country's athletics federation, a federation spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

Spokesman Mohamed al-Nouri said that the arrests followed a complaint filed by the federation president Chakib Filali Adib in April but said the exact number of athletes involved was not known.

"The police have arrested the person who was providing the athletes with doping products," added al-Nouri.

Moroccan media reported on Tuesday that a Moroccan athlete living in Italy had been arrested for providing doping products to other athletes.

The daily Al-Sabah claimed eight people had been taken into custody in the affair, including one member of the military.

Meanwhile, the website médias24 revealed that the people involved were "more or less top level athletes, both in activity and retired" and said that both clinics and pharmacies were implicated in the ring, with doping products having been discovered during searches.

The spokesman said that the Moroccan federation had previously made complaints to the police in 2007 and 2013 but that neither was followed up on.

In 2012 a Moroccan federation report said there had been 59 cases of doping in the country in 10 years, although the majority involved athletes competing at a lower level.

The news came on the day the International Olympic Committee said up to 31 athletes from 12 countries could be banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics for doping after new tests on samples from the 2008 Beijing Games.