Athens- Greek authorities searched a warehouse in the central city of Larissa Wednesday as part of a large-scale investigation into the alleged use of banned substances by 11 Olympic weightlifters, reports said.

Health Ministry inspectors searched the warehouse which is used to store dietary supplements after it conducted raids at three more locations, including the training facilities of the Greek weightlifting team and a pharmacy as part of the judicial investigation into the doping scandal, the day before.

The coach of the Greek national team, Christos Iacovou, was suspended last week after 11 of his athletes had failed tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) on March 7.

The scandal has thrown the Greek weightlifting team's preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics into turmoil.

The athletes' suspended coach blamed the test results on a faulty batch of dietary supplements by a Chinese drugmaker.

The president of the Greek weightlifting federation, Yiannis Skiadas, said anyone found to be responsible for the doping would be suitably punished, regardless of whether it is the weightlifters themselves or their coaches who are to blame.

Reports said the athletes told the investigative committee, set up by the Greek Weightlifting Federation, that they took vitamin supplements and were not aware that they may have contained banned substances.

The results of the second tests on the sample taken from the weightlifters are due to be known this week.

Greece will not send a team to the European championships, which begin in Italy on April 11, and its participation in the Beijing Olympics set for August 8-24 is also in jeopardy.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) could ban the Greek team for up to two years but said on its website that "as long as the cases are in process, the IWF shall have no further comments."

Greek media reports said the initial tests found that the drug was trenbolone acetate, a steroid normally used by veterinarians on livestock to increase muscle growth and appetite.

Iacovou, 60, is one of Greece's most respected coaches, whose team has won five Olympic gold medals along with five silver and two bronze since the 1992 games in Barcelona.

Under IWF anti-doping rules, entire teams can be suspended from international competitions for up to two years if three or more athletes fail doping tests within one year.

The IWF has spoken out such bans before, but then changed them into fines. Iran, Russia, Argentina and Kazakhstan for instance were allowed to compete at the 2006 worlds after paying a 50,000-dollar (32,000 euros) fine for each caught athlete (in Iran's case 450,000 dollars for nine positive tests).

Weightlifting has been plagued by doping over the years, with 42 athletes suspended in 2007 alone, according to the IWF website.

Greece was also involved, with Leonidas Sampanis losing his Olympic 63kg category bronze 2004 in Athens after over a positive test.