The IRS raided my boyfriends house looking for his cousin who was supposedly committing tax fraud, they found a lockbox which contained drugs, after that their search was pretty much over, they had mesa police come to pick it up but neither the search warrant or the affidavit state anything about drugs, its states they are there looking for stolen atvs, dirt bikes etc., which there was none! I thought and affidavit and a search warrant had to state what they were there to search and seize. thank you
Search warrant issues are very technical and any accurate advice would require looking at the search warrant affidavit and the search warrant. That being said, if they were looking for something that could fit in the lock box then they probably were allowed to look in it. Once they find something illegal on its face, like drugs, then they are allowed to seize it even if it's not referenced anywhere in the search warrant.
Paul E KnostCriminal Defense AttorneyTolleson, AZ ·
Once they have a warrant to enter, anything they find that is illegal is fair game. This is the "plain view doctrine." No additional "paperwork" is needed for law enforcement to report criminal activity to other law enforcement. If they had authorization to look in the lockbox for tax fraud evidence, but instead found illegal drugs, they don't need to obtain papers to hand that evidence over to a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over illegal drugs. The question becomes: did they have authorization to search in the lockbox? If yes, than anything illegal found in it will be considered "in plain view" and thus, fair game for them. Think about this hypothetical scenario: the police have a warrant to search a house for drugs. They kick the door in and, before they find any sort of drugs, the very first thing they find is a kidnapped person, bound and gagged in the living room. But the search warrant authorized the police to enter in search of drugs. Does that mean that they must overlook this evidence of the crime of kidnapping? No. It's in plain view and they were authorized to be in that house.
As one of the criminal defense experts who answered your question stated, search warrant issues are highly technical and I would really need to look at the "four corners" of the search warrant affidavit and the search warrant in order to determine the exact scope of the warrant and whether the warrant was executed in an overbroad (i.e., illegal) manner.
From the facts that you have outlined, the affidavit and the search listed only stolen ATVs, dirt bikes, and other tangible property as the items to be searched and seized. I find it very difficult to believe that a search warrant in a criminal tax investigation (I prosecuted Federal tax crimes for over 10 years) did not list among the items to be seized documents evidencing the taxpayer's receipt of income, his failure to report income, bank records and statements, and the like. Documents are the "stock in trade" of any criminal tax investigation. In fact, most criminal tax charges involve prosecutions for what could be classified as "paper" crimes (i.e., filing false tax returns, the failure to file tax returns, etc.).
If the warrant listed such documents among the items that could be seized, then the IRS agents were authorized to search any place (or container) in your boyfriend's residence (or its environs) that could contain documents. Because people commonly keep important documents in lock boxes or safes, the agents would have been acting within the scope of the warrant by opening the lock box to search for documents. Under the "container doctrine", once the IRS agents lawfully opened the lock box in search of documents, when they incidentally discovered illegal contraband (drugs) or evidence of another crime in the lock box, they were authorized to seize that item, since it was then in "plain view." The best practice for the IRS to follow in this situation would have been to seek and obtain a "roll over" warrant, describing the circumstances under which they discovered the drugs and requesting authorizing to seize the drugs. (I don't know if the IRS agents followed that procedure here).
If your boyfriend has not already retained a criminal defense attorney, he needs to hire one immediately. That attorney can provide more specific advice about the legality/illegality of the drug seizure under search and seizure law. Also, if your boyfriend is facing state drug charges, he may need to hire two different defense attorneys -- one with expertise in handling drug prosecutions and the other with expertise in criminal tax cases. He needs to obtain competent counsel in those areas now, before finds himself in even greater jeopardy.
