An Intelligence-Led Approach to Anti-Doping

Introduction on Anti-Doping

The traditional athlete testing-based approach to anti-doping has failed. It hasn’t provided an adequate response to the doping problem. It also does not accurately represent the prevalence of doping in sports.  Technological developments, globalisation and the wealth of athletes and sports teams prevent the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from keeping up with new substances, methods and techniques.  AD organisations lack a strategic understanding of the doping phenomenon. They do not provide adequate protection for the right of athletes to participate in clean sports.  The recent swathe of doping scandals exemplifies this and underscores the need to change anti-doping strategy.

Doping damages the integrity of sport as the achievements of athletes are tarnished, and ‘superhuman’ performances lose meaning.  Doping is also rapidly becoming a public health issue. Ordinary members of the public turn to performance-enhancing drugs to emulate the achievements or physiology of their sporting heroes.  However, they lack the supervision of a medical professional and the substances are often taken from unreliable sources.  This is particularly prolific in the age of the internet. 

As a result, the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) established an intelligence-led approach to AD.  It encourages a holistic understanding of doping to detect, deter, and prevent it early in the supply chain.  This future-oriented, strategic approach will likely involve the sacrifice of shorter-term tactical priorities. Such could be the exposure and punishment of dopers to neutralise their suppliers.  Diverging tactical and strategic priorities are familiar problems in intelligence. A comprehensive framework should be able to accommodate and overcome them.  

Anti-Doping: Implementing an Intelligence Framework

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) subscribe to the National Intelligence Model (NIM).  This framework provides a foundation for intelligence-led anti-doping as an emerging practice area that requires a collaborative multi-agency approach. The dual provision for tactical and strategic intelligence priorities is an essential element of the NIM.  This can amplify the competition between these diverging priorities and act to the detriment of intelligence quality. Nonetheless, it may ensure the representation of all relevant issues for decision-makers. 

AD organisations, including UKAD and WADA, recognise intelligence analysis as an intellectual discipline involving logic and empirical reasoning.  Intelligence-led AD includes using structured analytical techniques and empirical assessments of the reliability and accuracy of information.  Crime Pattern Analysis and “Hot Spot” identification generate geographical insights into the doping supply chain. This allows for targeted and upstream supply chain disruption, providing strategic intelligence and identifying emerging hotspots. Network Analysis was critical in the infamous Lance Armstrong USPS Cycling Team investigation. In it, connections to a team doctor exposed the extent of the doping culture.  The value of network analysis in penetrating sports highlights the significance of sport-specific expertise in intelligence-led AD. It suggests the scope for human intelligence.  We will explore this further in Part II. 

What Intelligence needs to be aware of

Analysts must be aware of the influence of bias, preconceptions, and the media’s sensationalism regarding doping scandals. In his investigations, Bradley Wiggins came to this conclusion.  Analysts must avoid the effects of the lack of separation of powers between the organisations. Analysts can do so by setting an anti-doping policy and the organisations investigating violations of that policy.  Nevertheless, analysts should embrace it as an integral and guiding anti-doping principle.  To maximize effectiveness, practitioners must embed it holistically throughout the agencies involved in intelligence-led anti-doping.  In the UK, mutual subscription to the NIM should help facilitate this.   

Online Doping Marketplaces

The emergence of online doping marketplaces has been a critical motivator for intelligence to involve itself. Online black markets are heavily encrypted to protect the anonymity of buyers, sellers and administrators and are notoriously problematic for anti-doping.  However, studies have demonstrated the ability to analyse large volumes of data to identify and monitor popular doping substances and “keywords” and uncover new trends.  This guides intelligence-led screening and investigations, drives analysis and directs customs inspections and targeted disruption of the doping supply chain.  These approaches appreciate the cyclical nature of intelligence and the continual monitoring of trends to feed future collection and analysis requirements at both the tactical and strategic levels. 

While this study took place on a relatively small academic level, it can scaled up with an appropriate injection of resources and expertise.  Intelligence-led, information-centric approaches are particularly suitable to combat online doping marketplaces. Analysts can apply intelligence frameworks and analytical tools to gather tactical and strategic intelligence and better understand the phenomenon.

Information sharing and multi-agency collaboration

Successful initiatives rely on multi-agency collaboration and information sharing with government ministries, law enforcement, customs and medical, pharmaceutical and veterinary regulators. In the UK, the subscription to the NIM by a range of public and private organisations facilitates and standardises collaboration, information sharing and a multi-agency approach to anti-doping.  Consequently, organisations involved in anti-doping should be able to collect, analyse and disseminate information harmoniously, collaboratively and cooperatively.

Anti-doping organisations need to build relationships with law enforcement as the trafficking of doping agents often connects to a broader network of crime and corruption.  Both anti-doping organisations and law enforcement agencies have unique powers and expertise that allow them to form mutually beneficial relationships.  Law enforcement has the power to conduct seizures and interceptions, compel the provision of evidence, and obtain bank records, thereby providing information and evidence that anti-doping organisations lack the power to collect. Equally, anti-doping organisations can provide expert witnesses and advice to help law enforcement with investigations and criminal proceedings.  Additionally, different standards of proof mean that where evidence is insufficient to secure a criminal conviction, the law may use it to support a successful anti-doping disciplinary proceeding.  Effective collaboration with law enforcement is central to intelligence-led action, and the growing public health issue should provide sufficient justification for law enforcement’s involvement in anti-doping. 

International Harmonisation

The transnational nature of doping means that anti-doping requires international and intra-national cooperation to be effective.  Sport is inherently international and founded on bringing people together from across the globe. Consequently, the lack of global harmonisation in anti-doping fundamentally damages the integrity of intelligence-led anti-doping efforts.  The legal status of doping-related products varies considerably between countries within the same supply chain.  Additionally, many foreign law enforcement agencies lack the financial resources to take the matter seriously. This is exploited by performance-enhancing drug traffickers who take advantage of countries with low risks of detection.  For intelligence-led and information-centric approaches to anti-doping to have integrity, there must be a globally harmonised and multi-agency commitment to codified information-sharing obligations. 

There is evidence across the anti-doping community of organisations being proactive in developing codified intelligence-sharing practices.  For example, WADA has a Memorandum of Understanding with INTERPOL. However, most agreements exclude less economically developed countries, thereby ignoring the fact that doping is a global problem with transnational supply chains.  Without effective international information-sharing practices, the success of an intelligence-led approach to anti-doping is limited. 

Conclusions on Anti-Doping

The intelligence-led approach is still young; despite some positive aspects, its implementation has clear obstacles.  In the UK, the NIM provides a well-established foundation for intelligence-led anti-doping. It fosters effective collaboration between UKAD and other public and private agencies involved in anti-doping.  Additionally, evidence affirms the anti-doping community’s commitment to analysis as a central and defining principle of its intelligence-led approach. These principles must continue to be embedded and embraced throughout anti-doping organisations for the intelligence-based approach to succeed. Online doping marketplaces are particularly suited to an intelligence-based response. They are a vital example of how a sound intelligence framework can successfully address and accommodate tactical and strategic priorities. 

However, the lack of global harmonisation continues to pose a significant threat to the efficacy of intelligence-led anti-doping.  A successful intelligence-led anti-doping programme must facilitate consistent engagement with an intelligence framework in a globally harmonised manner. Additionally, it must promote collaboration and information sharing between AD agencies and the various public and private organisations involved in anti-doping.  Intelligence analysis must be the underpinning principle of anti-doping globally rather than a peripheral speciality for well-resourced AD organisations.  As it stands, the lack of international harmonisation limits the efficacy of an intelligence-led response to anti-doping, threatening the integrity of sport and the health of athletes from the amateur to the elite echelons of the sport.