The Bureau of Prohibition (or Prohibition Service) was a part of the United States Department of the Treasury formed in 1927 to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919. Commonly known as the Volstead Act, this law enforced the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Its personnel were called "Prohibition Agents," and its most famous agent was Eliot Ness. The bureau was formed from personnel of the Alcohol Enforcement Office of the Internal Revenue Service (known as "Revenuers") who had enforced Prohibition up to this point. Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, many of its 400 agents returned to the departments from which they had come.

See also

• Prohibition
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• Federal Bureau of Investigation

Defunct agencies of the United States government | Prohibition | United States Department of the Treasury | United States federal law enforcement agencies

Bureau of Prohibition