According to Marca, the 37-year-old was taken into custody at the Blas Infante National Police headquarters in Seville, after police raided his home and found syringes, vials of growth hormone and bags of blood ready for self-injected transfusions.

Jiménez Pentinel is one of 13 people arrested as part of a national police investigation called Operation Jimbo, with arrests also being made in Córdoba, Málaga, Huelva, Valencia and Cantabria.

The Athens 2004 Olympic finalist is set to receive an automatic two-year ban for being found in possession of doping substances despite not yet being proved to have used them.

Operation Jimbo is the latest in a string of investigations into doping scandals that have blighted Spanish athletics in recent years.

Following the launch of "Operacion Galgo" - which means Operation Greyhound in Spanish - in April 2011 former steeplechase world champion Marta Dominguez was among a raft of people arrested and accused of being involved in a doping ring and supplying athletes with banned substances.

Jiménez Pentinel won European steeplechase gold in 2002 ©AFP/Getty Images



A number of athletes, coaches and doctors in Madrid, Las Palmas, Alicante, Segovia and Palencia were taken into custody after large amounts of steroids, hormones and medication including erythropoietin (EPO), along with bags containing blood and documents about doping practices were found.

Dominguez, a double European 5,000m champion, was suspended as vice-president of the Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) following her arrest but she was later cleared of any wrongdoing by a Spanish court.

A year earlier, European cross-country champion Alemayehu Bezabeh was suspended for two years after he was caught carrying a bag of his own blood for a transfusion, which he claimed was being used to analyse a liver problem.

That arrest was part of an alleged doping ring among athletes in Spain, which was said to be controlled by controversial sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who was implicated in the 2006 Operation Puerto anti-doping probe which uncovered systematic doping of cyclists, footballers and tennis players.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related Stories
March 2013: Mike Rowbottom - When it comes to tackling doping in sport, maybe the wailing woman in The Simpsons has it right...
December 2013: Spanish drugs cheat wins European Cross Country title by biggest margin for nine years
March 2012: Doping ring linked to Beijing 2008 smashed by Catalan police
April 2011: Spanish world champion set for London 2012 after being cleared of doping charges
December 2010: Spanish world champion appears in court over drugs trafficking allegations