Story Archive

The War on Drugs, Continued

Judy Sanchez was asleep, but awoke with a start by the sound of footsteps in the stairwell outside her Fitchburg, Mass., apartment. She went out to the kitchen to see who might be outside so early in the morning, and arrived just as whoever it was started cutting through her front door — with a chainsaw. Terrified, she ran to protect her 3-year-old daughter. It took three long minutes for the gang of 10 intruders to cut through their door, and they were heavily armed. They forced her to lie face-down on the floor. Robbers? Gang members? Nope: they were the FBI, doing a drug raid with a “no knock” warrant — but they had the wrong address. They kept her on the floor, “at gunpoint the whole time,” she says, for 30–45 minutes while her daughter screamed, until they realized their mistake and let her go. She says she got a “quick oral apology” with no sense of remorse. “Just a little pat on the back and saying ‘I’m sorry’ is not OK,” she says. (RC/Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise) ...As in any war, there are innocent “collateral” casualties.