WASHINGTON, January 13 Texas naturopath faces criminal charges for doping athletes ahead of last year's Tokyo Olympics, the Justice Department said. involving American athletes. «(Eric) Lira became the first defendant to face charges under the recently enacted Rodchenkov Act,» a Justice Department press release said. Lyra, who is described as a «naturopathic therapist» from the city of El Paso, is suspected of acquiring various doping drugs and distributing them to athletes in the run-up to and for the purpose of fraud at the Summer Olympics in Japan. Lyra appeared in court the day before and was taken into custody. For the first time, the applied law is named after the informant of the World Anti-Doping Agency Grigory Rodchenkov. After resigning from the post of director of the Moscow laboratory, Rodchenkov left for the United States, where in an interview with the local press he announced the «state system» of doping, allegedly taking place in Russia, and wrote a book about it.
