Region's top IRS law enforcement officer hiring at least 20 agents

One of Ron Loecker’s two majors in college, at the University of South Dakota, was accounting. But it was the other major — criminal justice — that held his career aspirations. 

Turns out he's used both majors in what’s been nearly 25 years in the IRS criminal investigation unit. After stops from Denver to Dallas and California to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Loecker was recently promoted: in June he was named special agent in charge of the Tampa IRS Criminal Investigation office. He was assistant special agent in charge in the Tampa office from 2019 to 2023, then did a brief stint in Washington, D.C. “I had a career goal of one day becoming an agent in charge and being able to do it here, where I wanted to stay in Tampa, is really a dream,” he says. 

The office has a wide geography, stretching from Fort Myers to Jacksonville and across the Panhandle to Pensacola, which encompasses the U.S. Middle and Northern Districts of Florida. Loecker, in his role, is responsible for planning, directing and evaluating activities of personnel who conduct criminal investigations into tax violations and financial crimes.