Two agents of the Italian scientific police have denounced irregularities in the investigation into the death of cyclist Marco Pantani and they made sure that they were not the first to go to the hotel room where the body of the ‘Pirata’ was found.
“They ordered us to wait outside. The others first entered the room where Marco Pantani died. It seems strange to me that because of the crime scene under investigation, the scientific operators should enter first, properly equipped with shoes, gloves and overalls,” declared one of the agents at the Trento Prosecutor’s Office (north), who -investigate from a year ago the alleged mafia-type criminal conspiracy in illegal betting on the 1999 Giro Italia that would lead to Pantani’s death.
The remarks fuel an ever-open debate in Italy about the legendary cyclist’s deathdied on February 14, 2004 in a room at the ‘Hotel Le Rose’ in Rimini (north).
A controversial case that the Trento Prosecutor’s Office reopened a year ago to try to clarify and it coexisted for many years with the current doubt between a murder and an overdose.
The Italian Supreme Court ruled in 2017, ruling out homicide and proving the overdose hypothesis by rejecting an appeal against the annulment of the investigation presented by his family.
The cyclist’s family once again has the opportunity to present their theory in the new investigationbecause he did not accept the decision of the Supreme Court of Italy, convinced that Pantani was forced to drink cocaine diluted in water and that the suicide was fake.
The investigation launched by the aforementioned prosecutor’s office last year refers to the possible existence of an illegal betting network run by the Camorra – the Neapolitan mafia – and to the alleged alterations of the cyclist’s blood samples during anti-doping controls at the Giro de Italy in 1999 to cause its disqualification.
These controls revealed a hematocrit concentration in the blood of the supposed cyclist sample that was higher than the regulation. Pantani was suspended from the final stage of a Giro d’Italia that he had been leading until then and in which he was the winner.
The Trento Prosecutor’s Office also obtained the minutes of the Anti-Mafia Commission which include the statements to the Carabinieri of one of the leaders of one of the most important clans of the Camorra, who has been a collaborator of justice.
“If Pantani wins the Giro d’Italia, he will blow up everything and the Camorra will have to pay several billion in secret bets, risking bankruptcy,” he said.
Four people were convicted of drugging Pantani for the champion’s death, accused of reckless homicide, but one of them, Fabio Carlino, was acquitted. The other defendants in the case, traffickers Fabio Miradossi and Ciro Veneruso and Peruvian Ramírez Cueva, agreed to sentences ranging from four years and ten months to one year and eleven months.
Twenty years passed on February 14 since the tragic death of the ‘Pirate’, the nickname given to a cycling legend, author of a legendary Giro-Tour double in 1998 signed by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar this year.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
