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A Serbian cycling official has been arrested in a swoop on a suspected doping ring, police in the north Italian city of Padua said on Thursday.

Aleksandar Nikacevic, formerly involved in the top-level management of cycling in Serbia, is suspected of smuggling and of receiving banned substances including the banned-blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), police spokesman Luigi Menella said.

The operation followed video surveillance of a doctor’s surgery and led to thirty people being rounded up, including twelve professional cyclists and five doctors. All except 31-year-old Nikacevic were later released, Menella said.

The police raid is believed to be linked to the discovery on June 28, on the eve of the Italian professional road championship, of insulin hidden under a cyclist’s bed.