ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- FBI Special Agent Greg Stejskal said he warned Major League Baseball a decade ago about players' steroid use, but MLB officials looked the other way.
Stejskal, who oversees the FBI's Ann Arbor, Mich., office, told the New York Daily News he informed baseball security chief Kevin Hallinan that Jose Canseco and other players were using illegal anabolic steroids.
Hallinan, however, emphatically denied he talked with Stejskal in 1995 or 1996, and MLB officials said they only became aware of the problem in 1998.
Stejskal said the FBI's investigation into steroid use by bodybuilders and weightlifters centered on Michigan, but also reached California, Florida, Canada and Mexico. It found player Jose Canseco, among others, was a heavy user of steroids, the agent said.
"There's little question the use of steroids was very widespread in baseball," Stejskal said. Major League Baseball "didn't sanction it, but they certainly looked the other way," he told the newspaper.
At the time, however, MLB could not legally test players for steroids. Mandatory steroid testing was adopted in 2002.
