Cocaine found in Diego's sample

PUNTA DEL ES-TE, Uruguay, Jan 6: A first analysis of a urine sample provided by Ar-gentinian football legend Diego Maradona, currently hospitalised after su-ffering from hypertension and an irregular heartbeat, has revealed traces of cocaine, the Uruguyan police said Wednes-day, reports AFP.

Maldonado district police chief Maximo Costa Rocha told a press conference that the drug had been detected in the first sample.

He said: "This positive sample is due to an excessive consumption of cocaine."

Costa Rocha made it clear Maradona had not been arrested but said several other people were helping police with their inquiries.

Judge Adriana de los Santos is presiding over the affair and Costa Rocha said: "Numerous other matters are going to be looked into."

The player's agent Guillermo Coppola was questioned for five hours by police chiefs while another businessman and friend of Maradona Pablo Cosentino was quizzed for three hours.

Maradona became a national hero when he inspired Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, winning the quarter-final with England and semi-final with Belgium virtually singlehandedly.

But he has always been a controversial figure and his problems with drugs have been much documented. In 1991 he tested positive for cocaine after the Serie A match in Italy between his team Napoli and Bari.

He was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a drug test - this time for ephedrine - during the tournament. He was later banned for 15 months.

In 1997 he failed another drug test after a match between Boca Juniors and Argentinos Juniors. That affair is yet to be dealt with.

Meanwhile, Maradona was spending his second day in a Punta del Este hospital officially suffering from hypertension and an irregular heartbeat.

However, rumours were intensifying that the player ranked by many as second only to Pele in the list of all-time greats was suffering from a drug overdose as Uruguay's justice department and medical staff maintained a wall of silence.

But Uruguay's drug czar Alberto Scavarelli told AFP they would not at present be insisting on any drugs test on Maradona although he said he was being informed on the player's condition. He said procedure would be followed "for Maradona as for any other citizen."

Maradona's condition was initially described as a mystery illness. That fuelled speculation, given Maradona's much-documented problems with drugs, that it might be a drugs-related problem.

The exact nature of the problem is still not clear, however, and judge De los Santos would be able to have results within 48 hours if she decided to order tests, Scavarelli said.

Both de los Santos and another investigator Luis Maldonado refused to comment on the case when pressed by AFP.

However, Costa Rocha and other authorities were having further meetings Wednesday to discuss what is being referred to as "the Maradona case".

The same group of people had held a previous meeting Tuesday with another judge Juan Batista Gomez although that was primarily to discuss how to handle the intense media interest in the affair.

However, one investigating officer - speaking on condition of anonymity - said that the object of the probe would be to determine if the player had used an illegal substance and - if so - how he obtained it.

Frank Torres, director of the intensive care unit at the Punta del Este clinic where Maradona is being treated, refused to disclose any details when questioned about local press reports suggesting traces of drugs had been detected in the Argentine's blood and urine.

"The patient has the right to confidentiality," said Torres, who described his famous patient's condition as "developing favourably".

He added that Maradona had spoken with close family members and that he would be detained in care for the next three or four days.

The mother of Argentina's 39-year-old Sportsman of the Century, meanwhile, has made a public appeal to the press not to hound her son who, she claimed, suffers from hypertension like his father.

Maradona's father-in-law, Coco Villafane, meanwhile, attributed the former Argentine captain's illness to over-eating at Christmas.

In Uruguay the use of drugs is a misdemeanour but not a felony and a judge can only prescribe a course of treatment and order an investigation.