Top racing trainer released from prison facing possible deportation from US
One-time leading trainer Jorge Navarro, known as the 'Juice Man', has been released from prison. The 50-year-old secured early release from federal prison in Florida having served three years and three months of a five year jail sentence after admitting doping horses.
Navarro was a pivotal figure in a widespread doping scandal in which more than 20 people were charged including Maximum Security trainer Jason Servis, who was also jailed. The charges arose from a 2020 FBI investigation into the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs involving a group of trainers, vets and drug distributors at tracks across the USA as well as in the UAE.
The Department of Justice said Navarro, who trained more than 1,200 winners with earnings of nearly £26 million, 'operated his doping scheme covertly, importing misbranded 'clenbuterol' that he both used and distributed to others, avoiding explicit discussion of PEDs during telephone calls, and working with others to coordinate the administration of PEDs at times that racing officials would not detect such cheating.'
One of the horses he doped was XY Jet, winner of the 2019 Golden Shaheen in Dubai. Among his preferred PEDs were various 'blood building' drugs, which, when administered before intense physical exertion, can lead to cardiac issues or death. XY Jet died of an apparent heart attack in 2020.
At the time New York district attorney Audrey Strauss described Navarro as 'a reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control'.
Navarro left federal prison in Miami on Wednesday but could now face deportation as the native of Panama does not hold US citizenship.
He became widely known as 'Juice Man' after a viral video emerged of him celebrating a winner, trained by Navarro's brother, with a friend who shouted "Juice Man", adding "That's the juice".
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