Federal agents raided an underground nightclub in Colorado early Sunday morning and detained more than 100 people who they said were immigrants in the country illegally, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The raid occurred at a club in Colorado Springs, about 70 miles south of Denver. Federal officials said there were more than 200 people inside the club at the time, including 114 who were in the country illegally. More than a dozen active-duty members of the U.S. military were detained as well, they said.
Officials said agents found weapons and illicit drugs inside the nightclub, including cocaine, methamphetamine and a mixture of powdered drugs known as pink cocaine.
Jonathan Pullen, the DEA Rocky Mountain Division special agent in charge, said at a news conference that the club had been under law enforcement surveillance for months and that “drug trafficking, prostitution and crimes of violence” had been taking place inside.
Pullen said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of the immigrants detained at the club. He said the members of the military were “running security at the club and involved in some of these crimes.”
The service members were handed over to the criminal investigation division of the U.S. Army, which did not respond immediately Sunday to a request for comment.
Pullen said that during the investigation, law enforcement officers saw members of the Hells Angels, MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs inside the club.
“I don’t have the information about whether those members were there tonight, but we’re still working through a lot of that, because we have so many people in custody,” Pullen said.
The DEA and several members of the Trump administration posted videos and photos of the raid on their social media accounts Sunday.
In one video posted on social platform X by the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division, agents can be seen breaking through a window as red and blue police lights flash around them. When the agents crack the window, several people run out of the building and raise their hands as law enforcement agents appear to point weapons at them.
Another video showed a line of dozens of people with their arms tied behind their backs.
The agency said the immigrants found to lack legal status who were detained were placed on buses “for processing and likely eventual deportation.”
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