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Rome - Raimondas Rumsas Jr, older son of the former professional rider Raimondas Rumsas, has been suspended as "a precautionary measure" after testing positive for a banned substance, Italy's national anti-doping agency confirmed on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old returned a positive sample for the growth hormone GHRP-6 in an out of competition test at his home in Tuscany on September 4.
It is the latest misfortune to hit the Rumsas family after youngest son Linas died suddenly from a heart attack in May aged 21 years, with reports in Italy that an investigation is underway into his father, head of the Altopack team for which his youngest son competed.
The team is based at Altopascio in Tuscany, near the Rumsas family home.
According to Corriere dello Sport, a search of the team riders' rooms and the Rumsas home near Lucca found medicines, insulin, painkillers, syringes and other unlabelled drugs without prescriptions.
In 2002, Rumsas Snr and his wife Edita were at the centre of a scandal after a large quantity of doping products were found in her car the day he finished third on the Tour de France. He also tested positive during the Tour of Italy in May 2003.
The couple each received four-month suspended prison terms in January 2006 for importing illegal medicines.
Rumsas Sr later served a one-year doping ban after testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO during the 2003 Giro d'Italia.
"We'll explain the medicines that were seized when they think we deserve to be questioned," Edita told the newspaper.
"We didn't talk to the boys about this stuff: you simply don't dope. We also want to know how Linas died but nobody explains why. His ashes are at our home, we'll only take them to Lithuania when we know the truth. Nobody can judge us by the way we mourn."
