Oh, and it just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser…

According to CyclingNews, the Spanish Civil Guard, the investigative body which was behind the Operacion Puerto affair, is now under investigation itself:

Spanish judge Maria Luisa Alvarez will soon hear a lieutenant of the Civil Guard about alleged public document falsification in the doping affair around Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, revealed by the military institution last spring. The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) official will be heard on November 29, after the court admitted to the proceedings a claim presented by Manolo Saiz against Rafael Blanco, director of the Sport Superior Council (CSD) about prevarication and document falsification on August 13.

The former director and manager of Liberty Seguros-Würth is legally represented by Carlos Bueren, who argues that the Astana ProTour team could not participate in the Tour of France and is on the verge of losing its ProTour license because of the alleged irregularities in the investigation documents. Saiz’s legal defense says that the information sent to the UCI does not correspond exactly to the deposited information in the court, with one folio presumably appearing without signature and with suppressed paragraphs.

In addition, they were supposedly forwarded without the authorization of the judge in charge: On June 29 (two days before the beginning of the Tour of France), the Spanish Civil Guard presumably transferred a report on the doping scandal to the Sport Superior Council. That day, the mentioned document was also sent to the Spanish Federation, which in turn transferred it to the UCI. The governing body of the sport then insisted on the supposed implication of the Astana team on the grounds of the ethical code signed by the ProTour teams.