Chapter[ VI. Incidents Providing Evidence to Baseball Officials of Players’ Possession
or Use of Performance Enhancing Substances ]
Section[ E. Canadian Border Service Seizure of Steroids in Toronto, October 2001 ]
E. Canadian Border Service Seizure of Steroids in Toronto, October 2001
On the evening of October 4, 2001, Canadian Border Service officers working at
Toronto’s international airport discovered steroids, syringes, and clenbuterol in an unmarked
duffel bag during an airport search of luggage that had been unloaded from the Cleveland
Indians flight from Kansas City.266 Ted Walsh, the Indians equipment and clubhouse manager
266 Facsimile from Adelia Piazza to Rob Manfred, dated Oct. 22, 2001. See also T.J.
Quinn, Michael O’Keefe & Christian Red, Bag Men: Gonzalez & trainer linked to 2001 steroid
probe, N.Y. Daily News, July 30, 2006, at 96. Clenbuterol is not an anabolic steroid, but it is
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who was present during the search, recognized the bag as one that had been sent down to be
included with the luggage by Cleveland outfielder Juan Gonzalez when the Indians left Kansas
City. On prior trips, Gonzalez had included bags for members of his entourage with his own
bags, and Walsh had the impression that this was the case with some of the bags he sent down to
be packed for the Toronto flight.
The customs officials requested Walsh to bring all of the luggage except the bag
in question to the team hotel as normal, which he did. The Indians resident security agent, Jim
Davidson, who was traveling with the team because of heightened security after the attacks of
September 11, 2001, met with local law enforcement officers in the hotel lobby. Mark Haynes,
the Canadian Border Service officer in charge of the investigation, told Davidson that syringes
and anabolic steroids had been found in the bag and that officers were going to replace the bag
with the Indians luggage to see who claimed it. Haynes also opened the bag and showed
Davidson the hypodermic needles, ampules, and other paraphernalia.
Thereafter, Davidson, Haynes, and other officials watched the luggage as Joshue
Perez, a member of Juan Gonzalez’s entourage, claimed the duffel bag. With Davidson present,
Haynes and other officers took Perez to an anteroom, where he told them that the bag belonged
to Angel (“Nao”) Presinal, Gonzalez’s personal trainer, who would be arriving in Toronto on a
later flight.
As soon as he arrived at the hotel, Presinal was detained by law enforcement
officers. In an interview at the hotel, Presinal denied that the bag belonged to him and asserted
that it belonged to, and had been packed by, Gonzalez. Haynes and Toronto police officers then
used by bodybuilders in the belief that it helps them to become leaner. It is a veterinary
medicine that is not approved for use by humans in the United States. See R.C. Kammerer,
Testing in Sport & Exercise, in Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sport & Exercise 323,
331 (Michael S. Bahrke and Charles E. Yesalis eds. 2002).
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went to Gonzalez’s room to question him about the bag. Although he had been present for the
interview of Presinal, Davidson was not invited to attend the interview of Gonzalez. After that
interview, Haynes reported that Gonzalez had denied any knowledge about the bag’s contents
and claimed that he had sent it down to be included with the team’s luggage at Presinal’s request.
According to Davidson’s account of the incident, during further questioning
Presinal admitted that he had packed the steroids but claimed that he carried them for Gonzalez,
whom he helped to administer them. Davidson reported that Presinal also claimed to have
assisted several other high-profile major league players in taking steroids. In our interview of
him in 2007, Presinal denied that he made any such statements. He asserted that he has no
knowledge of the involvement of any player in Major League Baseball with anabolic steroids or
other performance enhancing substances.
The next day, Davidson and Toronto’s resident security agent Wayne Cotgreave
had a conference call with Kevin Hallinan of the Commissioner’s Office’s security department
and members of his staff. Hallinan said that the matter would be handled from the
Commissioner’s Office in New York. Although Hallinan told Davidson that his office would
investigate the matter, there is no evidence that such an investigation ever was conducted beyond
a search for Presinal’s Cleveland address. None of the eyewitnesses whom we interviewed
during the course of our investigation was contacted by anyone about the incident until a news
report about it appeared in July 2006. Davidson was never asked to perform any follow-up work
with respect to the matter.
Rob Manfred told us that he did not believe a strong case could be made for
“reasonable cause” testing of Gonzalez because of conflicting statements by Presinal, Gonzalez,
and others about who the bag and steroids belonged to. Manfred nevertheless contacted Gene
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Orza of the Players Association about testing Gonzalez, but Orza refused to agree in this
instance. Manfred did not ask Orza for the Players Association’s permission to interview
Gonzalez because he thought such an interview would be fruitless even if the Players
Association agreed to it.
According to the July 2006 article, Presinal was “declared a pariah” by the
Commissioner’s Office after the events in Toronto in 2001, an assertion that Hallinan repeated in
our interview of him.267 By early in the 2002 season, however, Presinal was observed in and
around the clubhouse of the Texas Rangers (where Juan Gonzalez was playing at the time).
Sign-in records indicate that Presinal was in the Rangers clubhouse frequently that season. The
Rangers also reserved (but did not pay for) rooms for Presinal at the club’s hotels that season.
The Rangers’ general manager, John Hart, was aware of the October 2001 incident and
Presinal’s alleged role in it, since Hart joined the Rangers from the Indians after the 2001 season
and supported the Rangers’ decision to sign Gonzalez in 2002. In the summer of 2005, Presinal
was profiled by Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times for his in-season training of Bartolo
Colon of the Los Angeles Angels.268
After Presinal was spotted in the Rangers clubhouse in 2002, Major League
Baseball’s security department alerted all clubs and removed Presinal from the Texas ballpark;
he also was removed from the ballpark in Anaheim when he later was spotted there.
Presinal remains a prominent personal trainer for a number of professional
baseball players, operating out of facilities in the Dominican Republic. He also has worked with
players during the season in the United States. He was selected by the Dominican Baseball
267 See T.J. Quinn, Michael O’Keefe & Christian Red, Bag Men: Gonzalez & trainer
linked to 2001 steroid probe, N.Y. Daily News, July 30, 2006, at 96.
268 See Bill Shaikin, Colon Trying to Tip the Scales, L.A. Times, July 12, 2005, at D6.
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Federation to serve as a trainer for the Dominican Republic national team during the inaugural
World Baseball Classic in spring 2006, which included on its roster a number of players and
coaches from Major League Baseball.
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