ESPN: Fish: FBI knew of McGwire’s steroid use

Acts I, II, III, IV, Epilogue.

Greg Stejskal didn’t need Mark McGwire coming clean Monday about his nearly decade-long steroid usage to know the real story. Stejskal, a retired FBI agent, uncovered the details of McGwire’s doping regimen from informants almost two decades ago and, in retrospect, Big Mac is fortunate he wasn’t nabbed back then in the federal investigation.

Stejskal, who helped lead the first major federal investigation into illegal steroid distribution called Operation Equine, confirmed that McGwire and his then-Oakland A’s teammate, Jose Canseco, were among those identified as steroid users during the probe. The investigation ran from 1989-1993 and led to more than 70 steroid-related convictions, though authorities targeted only suppliers and not users like pumped-up ballplayers.

...Stejskal said federal authorities, through their undercover operation, learned of McGwire’s steroid usage by 1993. A year later, Stejskal recalled that he shared information from the investigation related to baseball players with Major League Baseball’s then security boss, Kevin Hallinan, though the sport had no drug testing program at the time.

“We had two sources that told us they personally had seen [McGwire] use steroids,” Stejskal told ESPN.com. “Not to mention the fact that Canseco said it as well, which gives you a third source. But we knew it before Canseco said it. And we knew specifics, too. We knew this wasn’t a one-time shot or an experimental thing. This guy had a regimen and stuff.”

Stejskal has steadfastly refused to identify the sources, though Curtis Wenzlaff has previously been reported to have been a supplier to several Major League Baseball players in the early 1990s, including McGwire. Asked about the sources Monday, Stejskal said, “They were steroid dealers and users who provided information to us that McGwire was a user of steroids.” He added that one “was present when he used steroids.”