Image via Complex Original
On January 16, 1920—93 years ago today—Prohibition took effect, making the entire country officially alcohol-free. In theory, anyway. Bootleggers, rum-runners, and speakeasies took advantage of the dearth of legal alcohol sales, and began peddling their illicit wares to meet the high, but unmet, demand.
However, federal agents were charged with enforcing the National Prohibition Act, raiding speakeasies and busting up crime rings that sold, purchased, or transported alcohol. These photos of Prohibition-Era raids were the reality you caught a glimpse of "The Untouchables." These are the real gangster squads.
New York, 1921
New York's deputy commissioner watches as officers pour liquor into the sewer.
[via New York Times]
New York, 1922
Famed Prohibition agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith examine alcohol seized in a raid.
[via New York Times]
Miami, 1925
Sheriff deputies pose alongside confiscated alcohol and their prisoner.
[via PBS]
Philadelphia, 1928
A crowd gathers as officers perform a liquor raid.
[via PBS]
Detroit, 1929
Bootleggers and rum-runners cover their faces as they wait to be booked.
[via New York Times]
Detroit, 1929
A man destroys bottles of confiscated liquor with an axe.
Detroit, 1929
Prohibition agents pour alcohol out of the front of an illegal distillery.
Detroit, 1920s
Officers search for alcohol during the raid of a supposed speakeasy.
Detroit, 1920s
Prohibition agents stand next to confiscated bootleg stills.
Detroit, 1920s
A Prohibition agent stands in a truckbed full of confiscated alcohol.
Detroit, 1920s
Alcohol is removed from an airplane seized during a raid.
Detroit, 1932
Federal agents bust casks of alcohol in an illegal brewery.
St. Paul
Federal agents during a Prohibition raid.
[via MPR News]