A Spanish magazine reported on Tuesday that bags allegedly containing the blood of defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso will be taken from Spain to Italy for DNA analysis. Basso was suspended by the Discovery Channel team on Tuesday, after theItalian authorities announced they wanted to question him further over his involvement in the Operación Puerto.

In May 2006 Madrid police seized bags of blood and doping productsduring a laboratory raid, along with codenames of cyclists and documents that seemed to indicate the existence of a program of organized doping and blood doping. Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, known for working with several Spanish cycling teams in the past, was at the center of the scandal that erupted in the weeks leading up to last year's Tour de France. Basso was kept off the Tour by his former team CSC after it was revealed that he and German Jan Ullrich, formerly of T-Mobile, were among dozens of cyclists to have links with Fuentes. Investigators in Germany recently confirmed that the blood which wasinitially attributed to Ullrich in the Operation Puerto affair turned out to match a DNA sample from the German.

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, has proclaimed his innocence and since retired from the sport.

According to Spanish magazine Interviu, bags containing blood belonging to Basso are slated to be collected by Italian magistrates and taken back to Italy to be tested.

"Officials from the Bergamo prosecutor's office will soon arrive in Madrid to collect bags of blood, labeled ‘No.2’ and ‘Birillo’ which Spanish investigators have attributed to Ivan Basso,” the magazine reported Tuesday. Italian sports authorities have yet to confirm whether they will testthe blood and ask Basso for a DNA sample, however given recent developments in the Ullrich case that could be the likely path they take.

According to Interviu, several documents seized by police in Operación Puerto link Basso to Fuentes.

The name "Birillo" also appears in a calendar which details extractions and injections of blood, according to the magazine. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), which had initially cleared Basso of any wrongdoing last autumn, has asked him to appear before an anti-doping prosecutor on May 2, where he could be asked to provide a DNA sample to prove his innocence. When he was hired by Discovery said he would submit a sample to authorities involved in a disciplinary or judicial investigation.