MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of MVP Track Club Bruce James last night described as “totally untrue” a report in the international media that two of their athletes — Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson — were under investigations in Italy for breaches of the country’s drug codes.

James said any investigations that are going on “must be secret as we have not being told anything”.

Multiple reports quoted sources in Italy as saying that both athletes, along with trainer Chris Xuereb, were under investigations after police took “50 boxes of tablets, sprays and ointments, some unlabelled” from the hotel where they are staying.

“At the instigation of Paul Doyle, agent for Powell, Italian police on Sunday raided the hotel where the MVP athlete were staying and detained Xuereb for questioning for about seven hours before he was released.

Doyle told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that they had called in the authorities after they were notified on Friday that Powell — the former World Record holder — and Olympic silver medalist Simpson had failed drug tests at the JAAA National Championships in June.

He said the positive tests raised red flags as “both Asafa and Sherone had been tested over 100 times each in their careers and have never failed a test, and soon after we hired a new trainer and he gave them new supplements, we get these results and we just wanted to make sure we checked out everything.”

In an interview with the Observer from Florida, James said he was in constant contact with the MVP camp in Lignano, Italy, which categorically denied the reports.

“… First of all, the athletes have not been contacted by any police or anyone official since the first contact on Sunday and they have been moving around Europe freely.”

James said they had athletes all over Europe taking part at various meets and no one had attempted to restrict any of them, including Powell and Simpson who had discontinued training.