Cannot get the drawers out of an eagle crest roll top secretaries desk. There are no latches in back of drawers

Here's what I found by purely by accident or more accurately by anger and brute force. All drawers are secured near the front instead of the back as is usually the case.

About 3" from the front of the rail I found an approx 1/2 wide piece of plastic sticking above the frame of the rail assembly.

The plastic that sticks up has to be compressed enough so that it will allow the drawer to be lifted. The plastic fits through a slot in the rail frame. I found that lightly hammering on the plastic compresses it enough so that it will fit through the hole in the rail frame.