Suspect in Spain's Greyhound probe found hanged

Alberto Leon, a suspect in Spain's Operation Greyhound probe into doping in sport, was found hanged on Monday at the home of a family  member outside Madrid, Spanish police said on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old former mountain bike competitor was also implicated in the 2006 Operation Puerto investigation into doping in cycling which is still on-going.                                           

Police were treating the death, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, as a suicide and confirmed media reports that Leon had been suffering from marital problems.      

Operation Greyhound came to light last month when Spain's civil guard took 14 people in for questioning suspected of  trafficking drugs and crimes against the public health.  

The most high-profile figure was world steeplechase champion Marta Dominguez, one of Spain's best-known athletes.

The others included athletics coaches and managers, doctors and pharmacists. 

The civil guard raided 15 addresses across the country and  said they found large quantities of anabolic steroids, bags of  blood, hormones and laboratory equipment used for carrying out  blood transfusions. 

Three of the suspects, Leon, Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and  his sister Yolanda, were also implicated in the Puerto case.                                           

In the Greyhound probe, the three were alleged by police  to have put together doping plans for athletes and on occasion  to have treated them with banned substances such as EPO and  anabolic steroids.

They were also accused of carrying out transfusions of  recycled blood.