Two weeks into my role as an IRS Special Agent in a new city, St. Louis, I got an assignment that was radically different from what I'd expected. When one envisions criminals being arrested by IRS agents, the picture that comes to mind is usually of white-collar criminals -- individuals in office buildings, donning suits, their hands dirtied by financial crimes.
However, my first arrest wasn't as neatly packaged. It was part of a massive task -- a citywide drug bust orchestrated by the DEA, IRS, and local law enforcement. We had 6 teams, each responsible for apprehending three individuals. The pre-op meeting, quite fittingly, was in a McDonald's parking lot.
So there we were, huddled around the senior DEA agent as he briefed us. He held up an image and doled out a quick rundown of one particular individual. "This case will require extra caution..." he advised, "Our intel suggests this person might have murdered a snitch just last week." While I managed to keep a composed facade, inside, I was secretly in turmoil. I'm an IRS agent, I thought, I shouldn't be dealing with drug-dealing murders!
In the end, we found his place empty -- a small mercy for this rookie agent who had just gotten her first taste of the unexpected shades of the occupation. Even white-collar crime enforcement, it seemed, could lead one down some very dark alleys.
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