Mark Schmidt, a doctor who was a key figure in the so-called "Edelrath" doping ring, was sentenced Friday to four years and 10 months in prison.

In a Munich court, the 42-year-old Schmidt was found guilty on 24 counts of using doping methods and two additional counts of drug prohibition.

He was also fined €158,000 and banned from practicing medicine for another three years; two were given suspended prison sentences, including Schmidt's father, who was fined between €5,000 and €10,000.

In one of the first major cases under Germany's anti-doping law introduced in 2015, prosecutors had requested a prison sentence of five years and six months. Schmidt admitted to doping athletes at the start of his trial in September, but claimed he did not benefit financially from it.

The charges date back to 2012 and involve athletes from a number of sports, including cycling, in which Schmidt (formerly a physician with Gerolsteiner and Milram) helped dope. The case came to light in February 2019 when Austrian police raided the Nordic Ski World Championships and later became known as "Operation Adelrath," or "Operation Bloodletting."

German police later raided Schmidt's clinic in Erfurt and found blood bags and other doping equipment.

The police investigation led to sanctions against a number of prominent professional cyclists. Stefan Denifle was sentenced earlier this week to jail time for defrauding his team and sponsors.

Alessandro Petacchi, Danilo Hondo, Georg Preidler, Borut Bozic, Kristijan Koren, and Kristijan Duracek were all implicated and sentenced to bans from the sport of varying lengths.