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 Read more
