Person familiar with investigation: Alex Rodriguez to meet Friday with federal investigators

AP source: A-Rod to meet Friday with feds

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to meet with federal investigators probing a Canadian physician on Friday, a person familiar with the session told The Associated Press.

The meeting is scheduled to take place in Buffalo and likely will include FBI agents and members of other federal agencies, the person said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because no public statements were authorized.

The scheduling of the meeting was first reported by The New York Times.

Rodriguez said March 1 he had been contacted by investigators and intended to cooperate. He was told from the outset that federal investigators view him as a witness in the case, the person said.

Dr. Anthony Galea said during a March 8 interview with The Associated Press that he treated the New York Yankees third baseman last year and prescribed anti-inflammatories but never gave him or any other athlete human growth hormone.

Other major leaguers, including the Mets’ Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran, have been contacted by federal investigators about Galea. Colorado closer Huston Street has said investigators might want to talk to him about the case. Reyes and Beltran have said they did not receive HGH from Galea.

Galea, who also has treated golfer Tiger Woods, was charged by Canadian authorities in December with selling an unapproved drug known as Actovegin. He also was charged with conspiracy to import an unapproved drug, conspiracy to export a drug and smuggling goods into Canada by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Galea was arrested Oct. 15 after a search warrant was executed at the Institute of Sports Medicine Health and Wellness Centre near Toronto.

Vials and ampules containing HGH and Actovegin, a drug extracted from calf’s blood, were found in a car driven by Mary Anne Catalano, according to the RCMP and U.S. federal court documents. Catalano told American authorities at the border in Buffalo that she knew the drugs were illegal and that she was transporting them for her employer.

Galea told the AP during the March 8 interview that Catalano was carrying only a minuscule amount of HGH and that it was for his own use.