The 1992 landmark steroids in sports investigation codenamed Operation Equine by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) resulted in the convictions of Curtis Wenzlaff and over seventy individuals for steroid distribution and trafficking and the seizure of more than 10 million anabolic steroid dosage units. FBI Special Agents Bill Randall and Greg Stejskal uncovered evidence linking steroids to Major League Baseball (MLB) players including Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire; they even obtained details of steroid cycles purported used by McGwire. The steroid-using athletes were ignored at a time when the federal government targeted steroid dealers (“Discovery’s ‘Undercover: Double Life’ features ‘Operation Equine’,” March 30).
“It’s amazing to see the snowball effect all these years later. I believed in (Operation Equine) and I think it’s come full circle,” Randall told the Daily News on Sunday while grilling steaks outdoors at his suburban Michigan home. “The thrust of Equine was to get traffickers, which is kind of unfortunate. I think we could have gone further, but the problem was the mind-set then. It was like, ‘It’s just steroids.'”
The federal government has taken the opposite approach with the recent BALCO steroid investigation. Fewer than a handful of individuals were convicted of steroid distribution and professional athletes like Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and Tammy Thomas have clearly been targeted by the government. IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky has become a media superstar and bonafide anti-steroid crusader. Operation Equine Agents Bill Randall and Greg Stejskal did not receive any such celebrity treatment and had become somewhat obscure characters in the war on steroids. But that is changing now that hunting steroid-using athletes has become a priority for the federal government. Now, the Discovery Channel is paying tribute Agents Randall and Stejskal in the series Undercover: Double Life “Bill Randall: Operation Equine” on the cable network Discovery Investigations (“Bill Randall: Operation Equine,” March 31).
“Bill Randall: Operation Equine” explores the double life of Bill Randall, an FBI undercover agent in 1989 who posed as a gym owner on a quest to buy steroids in the agency’s first covert effort targeting illegal steroid dealers.
Operation Equine originated as steroids in sports investigation even though steroid-using athletes were not targeted. Bo Schembechler, the legendary coach of the University of Michigan football team, was unhappy because he was convinced Tony Mandarich and his teammates at the rival Michigan State University program were using steroids. Schembechler asked FBI Special Agent Stejskal to look into the matter (“Local steroid trafficking case gets TV time,” March 29).
The episode has plenty of Ann Arbor references – including footage of late Wolverines football coach Bo Schembechler, who went to Stejskal with his suspicions that opposing players were using steroids around 1989. […]
“I’m glad they credited Bo for his contribution,” said Stejskal, who hasn’t seen the episode. “At the time, we had the only active steroids case in the nation for the FBI.”
Operation Equine marked the first serious offensive by federal law enforcement in the war on steroids. Former President George H.W. Bush had just signed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 into law which criminalize steroid possession and distribution. The former president personally called Agent Greg Stejskal at the FBI requesting that they continue to steroid probe. The large-scale investigation extended into Michigan, Florida, California, Mexico and Canada. The media responded unenthusiastically. Over a decade later, certain federal agents (and politicians) would learn that they were more likely to a name for themselves and further their careers by targeting athletes instead of dealers.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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