A-Rod had confessed drug use to officials

For 21 tumultuous months, New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez has defiantly maintained he never used banned substances from a Coral Gables, Fla., anti-aging clinic, that he is the victim of a Major League Baseball “witch hunt,” and that he would fight to the end to clear his name.

But in a Drug Enforcement Administration conference room back in January, facing federal agents and prosecutors who granted him immunity, baseball’s highest-paid player admitted everything:

Yes, he bought performanceenhancing drugs from Biogenesis of America, paying roughly $12,000 a month to Anthony Bosch, the fake doctor who owned the clinic. Yes, Bosch gave him pre-filled syringes for hormone injections into the ballplayer’s stomach, and even drew blood from him in the men’s room of a South Beach nightclub. And yes, the ballplayer’s cousin, Yuri Sucart, was his steroid go-fer.

When it was over, Rodriguez emerged from the Weston, Fla., conference room with his New York criminal defense lawyer, and has stood by his denials to this day. His attorney, Joseph Tacopina, could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.

Alex Rodriguez told Drug Enforcement Administration agents and federal prospectors that Antonio Bosch sold him pre-filled syringes loaded with hormones, which the ballplayer injected into his stomach. Bosch also advised him on how to beat MLB drug tests.

This is Alex Rodriguez’s never-before-revealed confession. The Miami Herald reviewed a

15-page synopsis of Rodriguez’s meeting with the feds, which took place on Jan. 29, 2014.

Last week, Rodriguez finished serving his 162-game suspension — reduced from the original 211 games — the longest meted out to any of the players caught in the steroid scandal (because he was considered a repeat offender). He is back as the Yankees’ third baseman, back in baseball’s good graces.

After an arbitrator reduced his punishment on Jan. 11, 2014, Rodriguez issued a defiant statement, saying “I have been clear that I did not use performance-enhancing substances . . . and in order to prove it, I will take this fight to federal court.”

But 18 days later, Rodriguez gave a sworn statement to the DEA and prosecutors that, between late 2010 and October 2012, he did use substances prohibited by Major League Baseball. It was completely at odds with his public utterances.

According to a written “report of investigation,” Rodriguez admitted paying Bosch for supplies of testosterone cream, lozenges laced with testosterone (aka “gummies”) and human growth hormone injections.

“Rodriguez injected the HGH into his stomach,” the DEA report stated. “Rodri- guez said Bosch told him the HGH would help with sleep, weight, hair growth, eyesight and muscle recovery.”

The report also noted that during the ballplayer’s relationship with Bosch, the phony doctor “injected Rodriguez in the buttocks with a red liquid substance.” Bosch told the ballplayer that it was “vitamins, not testosterone.”

“Rodriguez was alarmed about the red liquid substance and did not want to take an injectable form of testosterone,” the report said.

Bosch also injected Rodriguez with a “clear liquid substance in the buttocks,” which he told him was “vitamins.”

In total, the report said, Bosch injected Rodriguez with the “vitamin cocktails” five to 10 times.

Rodriguez also described how Bosch gave the ballplayer “tips on how to beat MLB’s drug testing,” according to the DEA report.

The secret? According to Rodriguez, “Bosch advised him to only use mid-stream urine for MLB drug testing. Bosch told Rodriguez not to use the beginning or the end urine stream.”

It worked. A test he took while using the drugs came up negative. Rodriguez’s DEA statement would fortify the criminal steroid case against Bosch, the owner of nowclosed Biogenesis, and his network of South Florida suppliers and distributors. Rodri- guez would also implicate the “middleman” — his cousin Sucart — who introduced him to Bosch, “discussed price, arranged pickups for [performance-enhancing substances] and delivered money to Bosch on Rodriguez’s behalf,” the DEA report said.

Since criminal charges were filed in August, four defendants, including Bosch, have pleaded guilty. Sucart, who has pleaded not guilty, “fully plans on going to trial” in February, according to his attorney, Edward O’Donnell IV. Prosecutors plan to use Rodriguez’s testimony against Sucart, Rodriguez’s longtime personal assistant, if he doesn’t cut a plea deal before trial.

Prosecutors have no plans to file charges against Biogenesis’ customers, who included not just MLB players and high school athletes, but police officers from Miami, Miami-Dade and other jurisdictions, a few federal agents and a state circuit court judge. Some of those customers, including Rodriguez, were outed as Bosch’s clients in a Miami New Times expose on the steroid clinic published in late January 2013.

In the Biogenesis case, prosecutors granted immunity to a total of nine current and former professional players: Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Francisco Cervelli, Yosmani Grandal, Cesar David Puello, Jordany Valdespin and Manny Ramirez.

In all, 14 ballplayers were suspended for their links to Biogenesis.

In the DEA report, Rodriguez admitted that he also helped pay for Bosch’s criminal defense, including $25,000 as a down payment to retain his first attorney, Susy Ribero-Ayala.

In an out-of-court settlement, Rodriguez agreed to pay Sucart $900,000 and other compensation to silence him about the ballplayer’s purchase of steroids from Bosch, the DEA report said. Sucart was also allowed to keep his southwest Miami-Dade home and Chevy Suburban SUV, both bought for him by Rodriguez. Copies of the confidential June 2013 settlement and demand letter were filed in the Miami federal court this past week.

At the DEA interview in January, Rodriguez’s lawyer, Tacopina, told authorities that his client’s investigative team wanted to buy a video recording of a secret meeting between MLB investigators and a South Florida man who came into possession of incriminating Biogenesis notebooks on Bosch’s steroid customers. Tacopina told authorities that Rodriguez’s team — headed by former New York federal prosecutor Andy O’Connell — paid $200,000 to the man, Gary Jones, for the video and Bio- genesis records. The DEA investigative report also stated that one of Rodriguez’s confidants, Jose “Pepe” Gomez, paid $4,000 to a disgruntled Biogenesis employee, Porter Fischer, who had stolen some of the clinic’s documents in the fall of 2012 because Bosch had stiffed him on repaying him that money.

Miami criminal defense attorney Frank Quintero, who is representing a co-defendant accused of conspiring with Bosch to distribute steroids to high school athletes, said the government’s immunity deal with Rodriguez was a “farce” in light of his alleged crimes — including bribery, tampering with witnesses and obstruction of justice. “From the evidence that we’ve seen, there is no question that Rodriguez and some of the other major league ballplayers should never have received immunity and, in fact, should have been prosecuted because they committed crimes,” Quintero said.

“The immunity given to Rodriguez and these other ballplayers is an attempt by the Justice Department to cover up their alleged crimes,” he said. “MLB committed the same alleged crimes that these ballplayers did by bribing witnesses, interfering with the state and federal investigations and obstructing justice, all of which was recently reported in New Times.”