Several members of Team Altpac Eppella, a former Italian U23 team, have been banned for 30 years for various doping violations. This comes three years after the team's Linus Lummusas, son of former professional player Raimondas Lummusas, died suddenly of a heart attack.

The Italian Anti-Doping Agency (NADA Italia) imposed bans on team owner Luca Franceschi and director Sportif Erso Frediani.

The two were sanctioned for various violations, including tampering or attempting to tamper with doping controls, illegal trafficking in banned substances, administering banned substances to players, and conspiracy.

Frediani's parents, Narcisso Frediani and Maria Luisa Luciani, were sentenced to a 30-year doping ban. Player and pharmacist Andrea Bianchi was banned for seven years for supplying products without a prescription, and Matteo Alban and Nico & Yuri Colonna were banned for four years.

The team first made headlines in May 2017 when former junior national champion Lummusas died suddenly at age 21. Franceschi, Elcio Frediani, and Bianchi were among six people arrested in February 2018 in connection with Lummuscious' death. All of those sanctioned were also required to pay fines ranging from €378 to €5,000.

During the initial investigation launched after Lummuschas' death, Lucca police said they uncovered "a genuine partnership aimed at facilitating doping practices," adding that Franceschi "recruited and motivated the most promising cyclists to take drugs and doping, including trace amounts of EPO substances," he added.

Three months after Lummusas' death, his brother, Raimondas Lummusas Jr. tested positive for the growth hormone-releasing peptide GHRP-6 in an out-of-competition test. He was subsequently banned from competition for four years.

The Lummuschas family is no stranger to doping cases. Raimondas Lummuschas, who competed professionally for Fassabortolo and Lampre, tested positive for EPO in May 2003, the year after he unexpectedly finished third in the Tour de France.

His wife, Edita Rumusiene, was found on the last day of the 2002 Tour with EPO, corticosteroids, testosterone, growth hormone, and other doping products in her car. She spent more than two months in jail before being released, and in 2006 she and Raimondas were sentenced to a suspended four-month prison sentence and fined.