Senators Hear of Armed IRS Raids

As the Internal Revenue Service has expanded its role in the federal war on drugs, it has begun subjecting ordinary American taxpayers to the same heavy-handed enforcement techniques used on drug lords and money launderers, a Senate committee was told. Several taxpayers described how they became the targets of raids by dozens of armed IRS agents--searches that ultimately failed to result in prosecutions for tax fraud but did manage to financially devastate the taxpayers. IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti acknowledged that the allegations, if true, would amount to misconduct. “Should even one of these allegations be true, that’s one too many, and I won’t tolerate it,” he said.